Shelter outbreaks leave people experiencing homelessness even more vulnerable during COVID-19

CTV National News: Homeless in a pandemic Advocates are calling for more to be done to help those experiencing homelessness during the pandemic. Heather Butts has more.

TORONTO — Even before the pandemic hit, homelessness was known to take up to 25 years off a person’s life. Now, life has become even more precarious for those experiencing homelessness, amid fears of shelter outbreaks and a lack of housing options.

“We knew homelessness was lethal before,” Tim Richter, founder and president of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, told CTV News. “You layer this pandemic on top a housing crisis, on top of an opioid or overdose crisis, and you've got just a very, very dangerous situation.”

Considered among the most vulnerable to the virus, people who are experiencing homelessness are 20 times more likely to be hospitalized for COVID-19, 10 times more likely to receive intensive care, and more than five times more likely to die within 21 days of a positive test.

This only adds to the daily anxieties for people like Whitey, who is living in an Ontario shelter.

“To me it’s stressful, because it's not easy,” Whitey told CTV News.

The soaring real estate market is making matters even worse in a country already dealing with a lack of affordable housing.

“It's pretty bad when they want $1,650 for a bachelor, you got no stove, a little wee bar fridge,” Whitey said. “Ever since the pandemic, prices are just […] sky-high.”

Outbreaks have occurred in many shelters across the country, but advocates say there isn’t enough national public health data being collected.

In Toronto, where thousands of people experience homelessness every year, there have been 1,042 COVID-19 cases linked to outbreaks in shelters, according to Toronto Public Health.

Activists believe that the true number is much higher.

One outbreak at the Bond Place Hotel, which Dixon Hall Housing Services used as a homeless shelter in the summer, only has 21 cases according to city data, but activists and residents on social media suggest the number could be as high as 45 cases.

Those who live in encampments in public parks in the city also say they have been under siege from the city during the pandemic, a troubling circumstance considering some choose encampments over crowded shelters due to COVID-19 fears.

Trespass notices were posted this week at four major encampments. In response, residents and activists held a rally on Sunday where they spoke out against what they see as a flawed shelter system in Toronto.

Encampment Support Network Toronto tweeted that one speaker at the event who had lived at the Better Living Centre respite during the pandemic reported there was “no privacy, there’s no sense of security.”

“If it weren’t for advocates on the ground in these communities, we wouldn't know that this is happening among a very vulnerable group of people,” Richter said.

Dr. Naheed Dosani, a palliative care physician and health justice advocate, told CTV News that the lack of complete information regarding the national extent of cases among those experiencing homelessness is a sign of how more needs to be done.

“This really behooves us in the future to build better infrastructure around health records and information technology so we have that information to tell those stories, to inspire change,” Dosani said.

It was the insistence of advocates that resulted in people experiencing homelessness being moved up the vaccine priority list in many provinces including Ontario, which shifted those individuals into the Phase 1 of the vaccine rollout at the end of last month.

Time is of the essence however, as a third wave could hit congregate settings and vulnerable people even harder.