As part of the work in Allan Gardens, I assembled the Allan Gardens Task Force with leaders from key divisions including Shelter and Support Services, Municipal Licensing and Standards and Parks, Forestry and Recreation. Now that Allan Gardens has been resolved, the Task Force will continue to meet regularly as the Encampments Task Force for Toronto Centre. We will strategize to address challenges such as dangerous dogs and noise as they emerge, using knowledge from our experiences in Allan Gardens, and make decisions about how to allocate resources across the encampments in our ward. At this time, I am advocating for resources to be reallocated from Allan Gardens to St. James Park.
I am hopeful that as winter approaches, we will be able to move more folks from our parks to indoor space. Toronto’s Winter Services Plan will add approximately 1200 new shelter and housing spaces for people experiencing homelessness between November 15, 2024 and April 15, 2025. As lack of indoor space is the primary reason why encampments remain, these additional spaces should help to address the bottleneck we have been experiencing.
I would like to reiterate that addressing the homelessness and housing crisis is not the responsibility of the City alone. Recently, it was reported that the Federal government offered $250 million in support to provinces to create more shelter space over the next two years and that the Ontario government had yet to respond. This was incredibly upsetting to learn considering the tangible impact I know that additional support could make in our communities, allowing us to transition people from encampments to shelter space. I hope to see federal funding flow directly to the City if the Province is not willing to engage in these critical conversations.
As we await additional support, you can find more updates on my Encampments Dashboard.
