Toronto ready to deploy more staff to help 3 homeless shelters dealing with COVID-19 outbreaks

Toronto Public Health has declared COVID-19 outbreaks at three homeless shelters, and the city says it will deploy more staff to the shelters if need be to curb virus spread.

The three shelters are Na-Me-Res on Vaughan Road, Christie Ossington Neighbourhood Centre's Etobicoke hotel shelter on Rexdale Boulevard and Covenant House North Building on Gerrard Street East, according to Toronto's online COVID-19 pandemic data dashboard.

As of Wednesday at 8:30 a.m., there were 14 COVID-19 cases at all in the city's shelter system: five cases at Na-Me-Res, seven at the Christie Ossington Neighbourhood Centre's Etobicoke hotel shelter and two at Covenant House North Building.

Homeless advocates say the city needs to step up its vaccination efforts among unhoused people by using incentives, conduct regular rapid testing, provide respiratory masks to all shelter residents, such as N95s, provide more isolation and recovery rooms for unhoused people and invest in proper air filtration.

The city, for its part, said in a statement this week it is keeping a very close eye on the shelter outbreaks because of the Omicron variant.

"The emergence of the Omicron variant has necessitated increased vigilance," the city said.

"We continue to monitor for changing public health advice and are prepared to strengthen existing protocols. We also have put contingencies in place that will allow us to deploy extra staff, if required. We are making every effort to ensure people experiencing homelessness continue to be prioritized and protected."

Extra staff would come from the city's Shelter Support and Housing Administration (SSHA) division and staff could be deployed to the shelters themselves, the city added.

"This is a fluid situation and SSHA continues to review its contingency planning based on emerging operational needs," the city said.

To manage the three outbreaks, the city said its staff are working closely with Toronto Public Health. Infection prevention and control measures for congregate settings are in place, it added.

Unhoused people are screened before they enter the shelter system and residents and staff are screened daily at individual sites, the city said. Shelter residents who need to be tested for COVID-19 are sent to assessment sites and then to an isolation site while they await test results. Anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 is sent to a recovery site, the city added.

As of Dec. 17, the city said 73 per cent of shelter system residents, 12 years and older, have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 62 per cent have received two doses. Thirty-nine children currently in the shelter system, aged five to 11, have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

The city has administered 11,036 doses at 818 shelters and drop-in clinics as of Dec. 10.

Street nurse Cathy Crowe, a member of the Shelter and Housing Justice Network, said the shelter vaccination rate is lower than that of the overall city rate and the city needs to incentivize vaccines to increase the numbers of people vaccinated.