Several agencies on the frontlines helping Toronto street-involved residents called an emergency press conference April 18 to address the city’s ongoing homelessness crisis.
Toronto’s homeless shelters are currently at 98 per cent occupancy. Funding is dwindling. Seven homeless people have already died on the streets of Toronto this month alone. And now that Out of the Cold Shelters are closed until October, agencies serving the homeless are worried that the death toll is going to rise even further.
Out of the Cold offers more than a warm place to sleep. The shelters are among the few equipped to provide frequent medical assistance and decent conditions so people are comfortable. Those basics are in dangerously short supply, according to folks at Street Health, an organization that provides nursing care for homeless people.
Alex Verman Green 