City of Toronto staff are slated to meet with New Toronto residents next month to address concerns about a proposed shelter for homeless people.
Community Engagement Facilitators will meet with residents, groups and businesses during the third week of October to allay fears about a planned shelter, which will contain about 100 beds, at 2950 and 2970 Lake Shore Blvd W.
The Facilitators are planning an information session and will also be talking to local organizations and the Lakeshore Village Business Improvement Area (BIA), says Ward 3 Councillor Mark Grimes.
Grimes after weeks broke his silence on the shelter in a message on social media. He wrote the City is in the process of purchasing the properties and a deal is scheduled to be closed by December or January, unless there are issues that arise during due diligence.
“Financial details of the transaction, including the purchase price, will be made public after closing,” he wrote.
The site was among four Etobicoke properties looked at by City officials for a shelter. The others were discounted due to size or obligations with tenant contracts.
He stressed that City staff have delegated authority when selecting potential locations for shelters.
“This means, once a site has been identified as meeting the City’s requirements, staff have authority to move forward,” Grimes noted.
City staff say they selected the New Toronto site based on existing by-laws, proximity to services, transit, accessibility and size of the space.
Grimes said he would like to see a women’s shelter on the site, since there are a number of service providers in the area dedicated to assisting women, such as Women’s Habitat, the Jean Tweed Centre and the Jean Augustine Centre for Young Women’s Empowerment.
“What has become increasingly clear through the COVID-19 pandemic, is the City’s inability to provide adequate shelter for some of our most vulnerable community members,” he warned. “We’ve been saying for months that we’re in this together and that includes the City’s homeless population.”
His office receives dozens of calls and emails from residents about people sleeping in tents in parks and on the streets and ‘we need to find housing for them’.
Justin Lewis, of the City’s Shelter, Support & Housing Administration (SSHA), says “our engagement process aims to help the local community understand what services will be added to meet community needs, and to identify possibilities for the community to collaborate and participate in the shelter’s success.”
There will be ‘community walk-throughs,’ along with email updates to keep residents informed.
Third-party Community Engagement Facilitators, Maria Crawford and Violetta Ilkiw, of Barnes Management Group, who are assigned to the project, can be reached at clc.2950.70lakeshoreblvdwest@gmail.com or at (416) 800-2914 ext. 202.
A website has been created for the shelter at https://www.toronto.ca/community-people/community-partners/emergency-shelter-operators/about-torontos-shelter-system/new-shelter-locations/1000-beds-george-street-revitalization-shelter-expansion-projects/2950-70-lake-shore-blvd-w/
SSHA will present a report to a City Council General Government and Licensing Committee meeting on October 5.