Council debates Toronto’s financial future as Chow presses for refugee shelter help

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow says refugee claimants could account for half of the city's homeless shelter population by the end of the year, a situation she called 'desperate.'

Refugee claimants could account for half of Toronto’s homeless shelter population by the end of the year, according to a new staff report, a situation Mayor Olivia Chow called “desperate” as she pressed the federal government for immediate support.

The city manager’s report was put before councillors Wednesday at a special meeting where they were set to discuss how to manage Toronto’s beleaguered financial outlook, with the city set to open its 2024 budget discussions with a $1.5 billion shortfall.

It’s an outlook further clouded by the pressing demands of a shelter system already stretched to its limits, where on an average night this summer more than 200 people go unmatched with one the city’s 9,000 shelter spaces.

Chow says the refugee shelter crisis is only getting more urgent because the city doesn’t have the financial tools to support claimants.

“We are a billion dollars already in the budget hole,” Chow said in speech before council on Wednesday. “How are we going to be able to support these refugees properly?”

“Will they be on the street come winter? I don’t know. We cannot answer that question. Our staff cannot answer that question. That question depends on whether the federal government will step up and do what it needs to do and not shirk it’s responsibility.”

The report before city councillors says the number of refugee claimants has “dramatically” increased to 3,300 people and could climb by year’s end to as many as 4,500 – half the city’s shelter capacity.

That does not include the 1,200 claimants getting help from outside the shelter system, including by Black-led churches and community organizations who quickly mobilized in recent months to offer shelter support.