

Codi Wilson, CP24.com





City officials said 26 of the 100 available shelter beds at the Moss Park Armoury were occupied as of 4 a.m. on Sunday.

An extended cold snap and a shortage of permanent shelter beds has prompted staff to find additional shelter spaces for the city’s homeless population and last week, after initially rejecting it as a feasible option, Mayor John Tory said the city would request permission from the federal government to use the armoury as a temporary shelter site.

The site officially opened on Saturday night, about 36 hours ahead of schedule.

“At four’o’clock this morning there were 26 people using the service. I understand there were some others who just came and had something to eat and perhaps a little bit of a rest but didn’t stay the night,” Pat Anderson, a spokesperson with the city’s Shelter, Support and Housing Administration, told CP24 on Sunday.

“At the other respite services throughout the city, things were pretty busy although there seemed to be space for anyone who was asking for it last night.”

On Saturday, the city opened the Wellesley Community Centre as an “overflow warming centre” but officials said Sunday that the site was not needed as there was only one person there as of 4 a.m.

The city says that warming centre will now be closed and will resume normal operations offering community-based programming.

The warming centre at the Regent Park Community Centre saw 67 people overnight and the warming centre at Metro Hall hosted 35. Both facilities will continue to operate on a 24/7 basis until further notice, the city said.

One-hundred-and-sixty of the 200 shelter beds at the Better Living Centre were occupied overnight, according to city staff.

Officials said street outreach teams encountered 44 people outside but only three accepted service.

"We are going to take this on a one day at a time basis in terms of what is sort of open and what capacity we have, the bottom line objective not changing one bit and that is we want to make sure there is shelter available for anybody and everybody who needs it," Tory said at the mayor's annual skating party at the Bentway Skate Trail.

"That is what we’ve been trying to do all this time with this unprecedented, extreme cold weather and we will continue to do that."

The city began this winter with five 24/7 winter respite facilities but a sixth was opened at the Better Living Centre to deal with demand.

The city has been permitted to use the Moss Park Armoury site as a seventh winter respite shelter for two weeks and after that period, it is expected that a permanent shelter will be found.

“The plan is to continue our work with the province. I understand the minister of housing has put out a statement saying that they are working with the city very hard to identify a site in Toronto and I understand there will be a statement from the minister within the next few days,” Anderson said.

Tory called the shelter situation an "continuous learning experience."

"You always wish you could foresee the future in terms of the weather or in terms of the influx of refugees that are taking up a substantial number of spaces in the shelters," the mayor said.

"I think we’ve done well at making sure that everybody could have a place to go."