at this point we don't have the luxury to debate on where to put shelters. The homeless population has doubled in the span of a couple years and that's ONLY the ones that are counted i.e. shelter intakes or people they can find sleeping on the street. it doesn't take into account the ones not counted which I suspect makes the numbers a hell of a lot higher.
I volunteer helping homeless individuals and weekly it's new faces, A LOT of new faces. more women than ever before, more middle age and elderly women. hell just more elderly people in general. The trend is clearly evident with new homeless individuals. just way more women, elderly people, and Indian immigrants. And quite frankly I'm honestly surprised the whole system hasn't collapsed in on itself yet. We don't have enough food to feed people. the portions we provide for meals within the past couple years have gotten A LOT smaller. we simply don't have the resources and we're to the point of begging for them and begging to deaf ears.
Shelters are full and consistently full on a nightly basis. Call central intake is just a waste of time and has been for the past few years. There's no spots available. and usually in the warmer months spots free up because people opt to sleep outside, not anymore.
We need more shelters and we can't debate on where to put them. if the concern is garbage, needles, junkies, etc then I'm sorry but suck it up buttercup that's the result of a failed system and a government be it municipal, provincial, and federal failing these people. I mean Ontario Works just hands out $343 a month now and no longer meets with anyone or provides resources. It used to be you'd talk to your case worker every couple months. now? now I know people who haven't been contacted by their case workers in half a year or more. Just make sure they let them know on a monthly basis they're not making income so they can get their $343 cheques which will pay for maybe a weeks worth of food.
Shit isn't going to get worse, it is worse. At this point it's not going to be fixed, not within our life time. So you're going to see more homeless people. I imagine in the next year the numbers will double again and it's not going to surprise me if by the end of 2026 we're at 50,000 homeless in Toronto.