'We have reached a tipping point': Ottawa Mission calls for new federal funding to support newcomers
CTV
The Ottawa Mission is calling on the federal government to introduce sweeping policy changes to help deal with the influx of asylum seekers, including establishing new welcoming centres, as newcomers to Canada continue to put a strain on the shelter system in the capital.
The Ottawa Mission is calling on the federal government to introduce sweeping policy changes to help deal with an influx of asylum seekers, including establishing new welcoming centres, as newcomers to Canada continue to put a strain on the shelter system in the capital.
The shelter in downtown Ottawa provided emergency accommodations to an average of 177 men every night in 2022-2023, while the number of meals served surpassed one million a year last year.
The Mission released a new report highlighting "epidemic levels of homelessness and food security" in Ottawa on Thursday, warning its capacity to serve vulnerable members of the community has been stretched.
"We have reached a tipping point in Ottawa, our province and our country where housing precarity and food insecurity are now so severe that the lives of millions of people are compromised by these conjoined factors," the Ottawa Mission said in its annual report.
The report says that while shelter occupancy declined in Ottawa in 2020 and 2021 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, it rose to nearly 8,000 in 2022 and, "by 2023, all shelters in Ottawa were once again at over 100 per cent capacity."
"In June 2023, numerous asylum seekers began arriving at the shelter, pushing its over-occupancy levels even higher, leaving The Mission no choice but to have dozens of people stay in chairs in its lounge overnight each night and turn others away to alternate accommodation," the report says.
The Ottawa Mission says asylum seekers accounted for nearly 65 per cent of all people staying in the city's shelters in September and nearly 80 per cent in October, before dropping to 30 per cent in January and 25 per cent in February.
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