Toronto opens warming centres Thursday after criticism from advocates, councillors

The City of Toronto opened three warming centres Thursday evening following criticism from advocates and councillors on an earlier decision to open them a day later instead.

The city backtracked its original plan after announcing it Thursday morning, after councillors and homelessness advocates took aim at thedecision to open centres Friday the day Environment Canada predicts heavy snow, a deep wind chill and strong winds to hit.

After "monitoring the forecast,"the city opened centres at 7and 8 p.m.in anticipation of a strong winter storm expected to comethis evening and last throughuntil at least Saturday.

Temperatures are predicted to plummetFriday morning, making wayforpossible flash freezes from the rain expected to accumulatethe night before.

Warming centresare indoor spaces vulnerable people and those experiencing homelessness can goto rest, eat, access thewashroom and get referrals to other emergency supports, the city says. Centres are available for walk-in at:

• Scarborough Civic Centre at 150 Borough Drive at 7 p.m.
• Metro Hall at 55 John Street at 7 p.m.
• Mitchell Field Community Centre at 89 Church Avenue at 8 p.m.

'Embarrassing for the city,' advocate says

While the change in decision was a much-needed victory, Cathy Crowe, a recently retired veteran street nurse specializing in homelessness advocacy, says she doesn't believe it would've happened without pressure on the city on all fronts, including from organizations like Progress Toronto and Shelter Housing Justice Network.

"It's embarrassing for the city,I think it's a shame.I thinkit's very a dark page for the city that this continues 2022," said Crowe.

The city's approach to emergency winter shelter has remained largely inflexible, reactive and inadequate throughout the past years regardless of the mayor in charge, saysCrowe, pointing to what she says is a stark contrast betweenthe city's efforts to ready snow plows versus emergency shelters.

She says while the city's initial decision was unsurprising,the stakes were higher than in recent yearsamida deepening homelessness crisis, increasing number of homeless encampmentsand recent attacks against vulnerable and unhoused individuals.

"I think it speaks to the need for the city toopen warming centres and leave them open for the whole rest of the winter," said Crowe.

Councillors call for review of winter emergency shelter response

Three councillors who sit on the city's board of healthcriticized the city's approach Thursday, sayingthe city'sthresholds to openwarming centres "forces people to risk their health and safety on the streets in snow, rain, and winter weather."

City protocol shows warming centres only open at 7 p.m. the day an alert is issued.Temperatures typically needto dipbelow -15 C or feel like -20 C with thewind chill for them to open. On Friday, the wind chill is expected to be -20.

In arelease, councillors Gord Perks, Alejandra Bravo and Ausma Malik say they asked for "options" to increasethe hours and locations of warming centresand drop-ins starting Thursday night.

"Each day, over 100 people are turned away from central intake because there is no space available in our shelters, which are stretched to capacity," the statement reads.

The councillorssaythey will be requesting a review of the city's extreme cold weather alert policy when the board meets in Januaryto providebetter protection for peopleexperiencinghomelessness.

Toronto-St. Paul's councillor Josh Matlowagrees there's a need for review calling the city's temperature thresholds "arbitrary."

"The reality is that any temperature below freezing is dangerous for people to be sleeping exposed outdoors," he said.

Matlow is also calling for more proactive communication on emergency shelter plans, saying he only learned of the city's warming centre plans on Twitter Thursday morning like most others.

"It shouldn't take public calls by people... to get the city to do what I think is intuitive to most reasonable people, which is to have warming centres ready and available before a major storm hits, rather than opening them in the midst of one."