City officials drafting a strategy to make permanent the sweeping changes forced on the shelter system by COVID-19
This translation has been automatically generated and has not been verified for accuracy.The proposal, which has not been finalized, could include the city purchasing hotels that it has leased as temporary shelters during the COVID-19 pandemic, while accelerating construction of new housing for the homeless, like Richard, pictured at Moss Park on June 30, 2020.
The shift out of shelters was meant to allow for the required two metres of physical distancing between beds for those left behind. But the city will need the federal and provincial governments to fund it all – a cry for financial help that could be lost amid the clamour for billions of dollars for other services to cope with the effects of COVID-19. Toronto and other cities have already warned of massive tax hikes and sweeping service cuts if budget aid is not forthcoming.
City officials are already seeking to extend leases beyond the end of the year, as experts warn that a second wave of COVID-19 is likely in the fall or winter. They have also engaged in talks with interested hotel owners on potential purchases, Ms. Bédard said. Activists say the city is wrong to crack down on the many encampments that have sprung up in its parks since the pandemic began. They argue homeless people are safer from COVID-19 in tents than in the city’s shelters – which they say are turning people away. And they say that the city should be ensuring those living outside have adequate washrooms and access to water in scorching summer temperatures.
On a recent weekday among the tents in Toronto’s downtown Moss Park, one of the city’s largest homeless encampments, Howard Anthony Blake said he spent two months living outdoors here until city workers offered him a hotel room outside the core, in Scarborough.
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