The province is working to “expedite” renovations to a long shuttered youth detention centre on George Street so that it can be made available for use as an emergency shelter, Minister of Housing Peter Milczyn has announced.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Milczyn said that provincial staff have identified the former York Detention Centre at 354 George Street as the “best and only possible provincial location” for an emergency shelter.
Milczyn said that the facility could be operational by the week of January 29th and remain open to the homeless for the remainder of the winter as the city’s seventh winter respite site.
He said that the province has asked the federal government to keep the temporary respite site at the Moss Park armoury open until the George Street facility is operational.
A 100-bed respite site opened at the Moss Park armoury on Saturday, though officials have indicated that it will only be operational for a period of two weeks.
“The province facilitated the request to the federal government for use of the Moss Park Armoury and immediately began looking for a provincial site which could be used for the remainder of the winter months based on the city's specifications for a downtown location, with appropriate space and accessibility provisions, as well as bathroom and shower facilities,” the statement from Milczyn reads. “Provincial staff have identified 354 George St, the former location of the York Detention Centre, a former youth detention centre, as the best and only possible provincial location which meets the city's needs.”
Milczyn said that substantial renovations will have to be undertaken to allow 354 George St. to be used as a respite site, specifically with regards to the building’s HVAC, plumbing and electrical systems.
He said that the province is committed to expediting that work, though.
“I have been monitoring the situation and have been in close contact with the mayor's office regularly. I, along with Minister Hoskins, met with Mayor Tory earlier today to offer the site and discuss long-term issues around homelessness,” he said.
Tory says city is grateful for ‘collaborative response’
In a statement issued on Tuesday afternoon, Tory said that he is grateful for the “collaborative response” from government partners as the city responds to “unprecedented demand” for shelter space.
He said the city has identified “location, space and accessibility provisions, as well as bathroom and shower facilities” as priorities as it searches for additional respite sites and has asked the province for assurances that all efforts will be taken to ensure that 354 George Street will provide a “safe, comfortable, and dignified option for our most vulnerable citizens.”
Meanwhile, he said that city staff will continue to work on more permanent solutions to address crowding in the shelter system and long-term issues around homelessness.
"Today, I met with Health Minister Eric Hoskins and Housing Minister Peter Milczyn to discuss other long-term issues around homelessness, including urgent unmet mental health needs,” he said. “We had good discussions around the need to provide mental and physical health supports and services within the shelter system and the need to create more supportive housing that I hope will translate very quickly into actions we can take together."
The city has a total of 5,797 shelter spaces but the occupancy rate system-wide regularly exceeds 95 per cent.
The overcrowding reached a crisis point last month when a number of people were wrongly told that there was no space for them at a respite centre at the Better Living Centre amid extreme cold.
