Beds were available at some homeless shelters Saturday night, city says

The city’s director of shelter services says beds are still available at multiple homeless shelters across Toronto despite reports from volunteers at an unsanctioned downtown supervised injection site who said beds could not be located last night.

Speaking to CP24 on Saturday night, Gillian Kolla, of the Toronto Overdose Prevention Society, said that when she tried to find shelter beds for patrons of the Moss Park supervised injection site on Saturday, she was told by intake officials with the city’s shelter system that there were no beds available at nearby facilities.

The city recently opened up a new shelter inside a section of the Better Living Centre on the grounds of the Canadian National Exhibition and Kolla said that she tried to send some of her patrons there but was told that there was no space.

“I was giving people gifts cards so they can at least go in, get a hot chocolate, warm up and have a warm place to stay for a few minutes,” she told CP24 on Saturday. “It is really, really hard when it is -25 C outside to send people out into the cold.”

But on Sunday morning, Gord Tanner, the city’s director of shelter services, told CP24 that there were in fact spaces available at the Better Living Centre on Saturday night, as well as the 24-hour women’s respite shelter on Cowan Avenue in Parkdale, and the shelter at 129 Peter Street.

Tanner has said that people and pets are still permitted to go inside the Better Living Centre to warm up even if beds are not available, however, one person told CP24 outside the facility on Sunday that they were turned away after they were told the facility was at capacity.

When approached by CP24 about the rejection, security at the facility again repeated that they were at capacity before a senior staff member clarified the policy and said all people would be permitted inside.

Tanner previously told CP24 city staff would be looking into any possible miscommunications that may have occurred at the facility.

Bitterly cold temperatures have created dangerous conditions outside for the city’s homeless population. Toronto and many parts of the province are under an extreme cold warning with forecasted wind chill values of -30 on Sunday.

An extreme cold weather alert issued by the city’s medical officer of health is also still in effect.

The city’s shelter system frequently runs at about 95 per cent capacity overall, but some facilities are known to regularly run at maximum capacity.