City councillors exploring micro-shelters as homelessness crisis in Toronto soars

With Toronto's stateless colonisation doubling successful the past 3 years and shelters overflowing, metropolis councillors person voted to research whether Toronto could run micro shelters successful underutilized Toronto Transit Commission parking lots.

At a gathering of the city's economical and assemblage improvement committee this week, Coun. Chris Moise enactment guardant a palmy motion, asking metropolis unit to study backmost aboriginal adjacent twelvemonth connected the feasibility of specified a plan.

The thought came astir aft a TTC study recovered 7 of its commuter parking tons were being underutilized, meaning they were connected mean little than fractional afloat during highest hours.

Coun. Moise's main of unit Tyler Johnson said several tons were only using 17 to 50 per cent of their capacity.

"Creating and sheltering radical successful micro-shelters is simply a amended alternate to them camping successful our parks," helium said. "They aren't the [whole] solution, but they tin beryllium portion of the enactment we take. We person to exhaust each of our options earlier we tin accidental we're doing everything we tin to code the crisis."'

The situation helium refers to is progressively real. According to the highlights of the 2024 Street Needs Assessment survey, Toronto's unhoused colonisation reached an estimated 15,400 past autumn — up from 7,000 successful 2021 — with 301 encampments citywide. 

'Stepping chromatic betwixt situation and stability'

Micro-shelters scope successful style from compartment communities to tiny homes and tents — each of which are meant to temporarily structure radical portion much semipermanent solutions are sought.

Homelessness advocates are assured this impermanent structure method would assistance capable existent gaps successful the system.

Two Steps Home, Inc., an interim supportive lodging radical that spoke astatine the meeting, has designed its ain mentation of micro-shelters: compartment communities with shared abstraction for cooking, cleaning and assemblage meetings. 

"The volition is that this is an interim measurement betwixt the structure systems and encampments and semipermanent and supportive housing," said Robert Raynor, communications manager for Two Steps Home, Inc.

"We spot that determination are opportunities crossed the metropolis to physique tiny communities connected tiny pieces of land," helium said. 

But the metropolis has not been capable to place a tract suitable for compartment communities, Two Steps Home, Inc. designer Aaron Budd said. One communal installation consisting of 50 cabins and shared facilities would instrumentality up conscionable implicit 3,000 quadrate metres of land, he said. 

Other options see tiny modular homes, similar those built by Ryan Donais's non-profit, Tiny Tiny Homes. Last summer, helium started gathering the micro-shelters successful the city, though helium was astir ordered to halt by the metropolis for violating municipal code, until Mayor Olivia Chow intervened.

WATCH | Woman experiencing homelessness connected what tiny location means to her: 

"Each of these [micro-shelters] provided the nonmigratory with dignity and a harmless abstraction that they needed to commencement moving connected their life," Donais said.

Francis Stocker, who had been unhoused for 2 years erstwhile helium met Donais, said his archetypal nighttime wrong 1 of the tiny homes successful St. James Park was the archetypal clip successful a portion that helium could adjacent his eyes to slumber without the fearfulness of being attacked. 

"It wasn't overmuch by astir standards, but for maine it was everything," helium said. "They're a real, tangible guardant stepping chromatic betwixt situation and stability."

City adding 20 caller imperishable shelters by 2033

Coun. Moise's question is conscionable 1 of the efforts the metropolis has enactment into fixing the homelessness crisis. In 2023, the metropolis unveiled a program to physique 20 new, smaller imperishable shelters with 1,600 spaces by 2033. 

The city's wide manager of structure and enactment services says the metropolis is inactive identifying locations, and is receiving pushback successful immoderate communities.

He said the eventual solution to the homelessness contented "is supportive lodging and upstream systemic change."

In the meantime, metropolis unit volition study backmost to the metropolis committee connected the feasibility of putting micro-shelters successful the archetypal 4th of 2026.