Toronto activates additional supports for vulnerable people as extra warming centre spaces reach capacity

The Cecil Community Centre surge warming centre is pictured. (Rahim Ladhani/CTV News Toronto)

The City of Toronto says its deploying additional resources to support its most vulnerable residents after extra warming centre spaces quickly filled up amid the extreme cold overnight.

Currently, there are seven warming centres operating in the city: 5 regular sites at 81 Elizabeth St., 885 Scarborough Golf Club Rd., 136 Spadina Rd., 349 George St., and 12 Holmes Ave.and two surge sites (which are activated when the temperature plunges to -15 C), at the Jimmie Simpson Recreation Centre (870 Queen St. E.) and Cecil Community Centre (58 Cecil St.) Those additional sites opened at 5 p.m. on Monday and have a total of 60 spaces.

All warming centres, however, were near capacity at around 4 a.m. on Tuesday morning, according to city data. The temperature dropped to -15 C on Tuesday morning but felt closer to -26 with the wind chill.

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The City of Toronto says anyone who arrives at an at-capacity warming centre will be provided with transportation to alternate spaces in the shelter system, if available.

“Contingency spaces still remain available,” a city of Toronto spokesperson said on Tuesday, adding the city worked with “staff and partners from across the shelter system to open temporary contingency spaces (on Monday) in areas not traditionally used for sleeping.”

Warming centres provide spaces for vulnerable individuals to get out of the cold when it dips down to -5 C or when a winter weather event warning is issued.

They’re pet-friendly and open to walk-ins, providing vulnerable people with a place to rest, to get a hot meal, to access washroom facilities, and referrals to emergency shelter.

Generally, warming centres open at 5 p.m. on the day that locations are activated and remain operational 24 hours a day until it is determined that locations will close.

City of Toronto spokesperson Elise von Scheel said aside from opening warming centres, the city has also dispatched additional street outreach teams to “connect with people living outside to perform wellness checks, provide supplies like sleeping bags and hats, and encourage individuals to come indoors.”

Daytime drop-in programs are also available across the city, offering extended hours, she noted.

‘I’m quite worried about people’

On Monday evening, community outreach worker and advocate Diana Chan McNally said while these additional spaces help, they’re just not enough to get the city’s roughly 10,000 unhoused people out of the extreme cold.

“One way or another, we’re going to find that people will not be able to access places like warming centers, even with the additional spaces opening up … Even with these additional resources, you’re still going to see people who have nowhere to go, which is to say that they may try to end up on the TTC system. They may try to end up in other private spaces, places like Union Station, for example, but otherwise, are not actually able to access the warm spaces and resources they need in this kind of weather event,” she told CP24.

“So I’m quite worried about people, and I’m sure a lot of folks on the street again, are just not able to find somewhere to go.”

Chan McNally went on to say that as much as these temporary solutions can help, they don’t address the root cause of the issue.

“Ultimately, the answer is housing. These folks, they need housing. We can have emergency supports in place. And certainly, at a time like this, you’re going to see that people are going to incur cold-related injuries, hypothermia,” she said.

“You know, not to be dark, but as someone who’s done this work for a long time, I’ve picked up people’s toes off the floor. They’ve come off because of frostbite.”

‘You just try to get through it’

Earlier today, CP24’s Courtney Heels spoke with some unhoused people struggling to get by in the extreme cold.

One man, who has been experiencing homelessness for a number of years and was wearing several layers, said he’s grateful the city has spaces like these for people who have no where else to go to escape the elements.

“You just try to get through it, try to get through the night. There’s all kinds of techniques. There’s all kinds of possibilities where you’re on the street,” said the man, who spent the night at the Jimmie Simpson Community Recreation Centre surge site.

“(You can) ride the streetcar all night, I hate to say it for the TTC, but then again look what they’re going through. … It took a lot of years to learn how to survive (in the extreme cold).”

Justin, who said he’s been “off and on homeless for a while,” also visited the east-end warming centre on Monday night.

He said it’s the first time he’s accessed this kind of service.

“Its not bad. It’s just cots. Not the greatest sleeping arrangements, but you can only get what the city has for funding, right,” he said.

Justin said he had a home until about three weeks ago but has been sleeping on the streets trying to find space in different shelters.