'My heart broke,' Brampton mayor says after asylum seeker dies in tent outside Peel Region shelter

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown says the death of an asylum-seeker camped outside a Peel Region shelter on Tuesday night should be a wake up call to other levels of government who need to provide immediate support to municipalities dealing with the growing refugee crisis.

“We have been warning senior levels of government since July this was going to happen,” Brown told reporters during a news conference on Thursday afternoon.

“It’s beyond comprehension that we have allowed this to happen. When I got the news of a fatality yesterday, my heart broke, it sunk.”

Peel Regional Police told CP24 that the man was found on Wednesday morning outside a building located at 1767 Dundas Street East, the former site of the Peel Family Shelter, which relocated to a new address last year.

In a written statement, Peel police said officers were called to the area at around 7:30 a.m. for reports of a man inside a tent without vital signs.

The man, who police said is in his 40s, was pronounced dead at the scene and the fatality has been deemed “non-suspicious.”

The cause of death has not yet been determined but a post-mortem exam has been ordered, police added.

“My hope is that fatality that was outside the shelter is not going to be in vain, that this tragedy can ignite those calls for help,” Brown said.

He noted that the region’s shelter system is currently running at over 300 per cent capacity due to the use of temporary accommodations in hotels.

“We have capacity for 500 and we are almost at 1,500,” Brown said, adding that about 80 per cent of the people in the shelter system are asylum-seekers, largely from African countries.

He said on any given night, the region sees up to 150 people sleeping outdoors.

“What petrifies me… is the temperatures are about to get colder,” Brown said.

“There will be more fatalities and that blood is on our hands if we don’t step up and help.”

While conversations are ongoing with the federal government, Brown said funding is not coming fast enough.

“Since July we have had three meetings with the minister of immigration, citizenship, and refugees. All positive,” Brown said.

“I believe he appreciates in a very honest way, the urgency of the situation. But this cannot wait another month, this cannot wait weeks.”

Municipalities have been struggling to deal with an influx of asylum seekers since July. At one point this summer, hundreds of asylum seekers could be seen sleeping outside Toronto’s shelter intake centre on Peter Street, prompting urgent calls for action.

Community groups ultimately stepped in to house some of the asylum seekers in churches and to provide food and clothing. But community leaders have said that their support is unsustainable long-term.

In October, Gord Tanner, the head of the City of Toronto’s shelter, support, and housing administration, said there are currently about 9,000 people in the shelter system in addition to 1,700 who are in hotels and other programs supported by the Canadian Red Cross. About 40 per cent of shelter beds are currently occupied by refugee claimants, he said.

During a news conference last month, Tanner also expressed concern over the city’s ability to house people as the temperature drops.

“It is certain that demand for shelter space will increase even further this winter as it does every year when cold weather makes living outside difficult and potentially life-threatening,” he said.

“We want to be able to able to accommodate the significant need but… our shelter system is full and the strain on the system is only increasing.”

A spokesperson for the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) said in a statement to CTV News that the agency is in touch with Peel officials and has offered support.

“We are working closely with provinces and municipalities to ensure that the unprecedented volume of asylum seekers that are currently arriving in Canada are housed, especially with the winter months approaching,” the statement read.

The IRCC added that it is working with other levels of government to transfer claimants to hotels with available space.

“There is no simple answer but we are confident that, with full engagement from all levels of government, we can implement real long-term, sustainable, and compassionate measures.”

In July, the federal government did announce that it would be providing $210 million to fund interim housing for asylum seekers, with about half of that money heading to Toronto.

But municipalities, including Toronto, have said that amount does not come close to addressing the true cost of the crisis.

“We’ve just heard excuses from other levels of government that help is on its way. It is going to come,” Brown said Thursday. “But it hasn’t yet.”