City staff recommend pushing ahead with a plan to house homeless people in modular housing as early as September as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to plague the shelter system.

A report is expected to be tabled at a special council meeting this Thursday.

According to early information posted by staff online, council will be asked to approve an “expedited” plan that would see 110 new, prefabricated units created by September and another 140 by “early 2021.”

Since last year, staff have been working on a plan for modular housing — units that can be made and fit together off-site, furniture and all, and then lifted by crane into an open lot quickly and moved as needed — since last summer. The emergency got in the way of a report being presented to committee last month, the early staff information says.

The modular housing solution is meant to respond to the homelessness crisis, which staff note was an issue before the COVID-19 pandemic and only “amplified” by the virus.

“Toronto was already experiencing an unprecedented demand for homeless services due to various factors, including a lack of affordable housing options in the city,” the report says. “Despite adding 3,000 shelter spaces since 2015, shelter occupancy remains at capacity with over 8,000 shelter users each night.”

The “considerable added strain on the emergency shelter system” caused by COVID-19 outbreaks has seen staff work to distance existing clients using community centres and hotel rooms — expected to reach 2,000 added spaces and up to 700 redeployed staff by the end of the month.

Modular housing, used elsewhere in North America, “provides an opportunity to respond rapidly to the city’s urgent homelessness situation,” the report says.

Other jurisdictions already using modular housing include Vancouver. Abigail Bond, the new executive director of Toronto’s housing secretariat, was the B.C. city’s managing director of homelessness services and affordable housing programs.

In an interview with the Star in February, Bond explained how Vancouver had created 2,000 new affordable units, 600 of them developed in some kind of modular construction.

“The most important piece is the fact that it’s actually providing home. The modular is kind of an interesting aspect to the construction, but it’s really just the means to an end,” she said at the time.

Staff have applied to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) for funding and financing for the project. The city’s report says CMHC has responded “favourably” and is currently working with the city to “formalize” support for phase one.

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The city will also look for additional funding from the province for health-related support services and housing subsidies to make the affordable units available to those facing mental health issues, addictions and other challenges.

On Tuesday, the city surpassed 5,000 COVID-19 cases, with Dr. Eileen de Villa, Toronto’s medical officer of health, reporting 5,128 people infected with the virus — 4,647 confirmed cases and 481 probable. In total, 305 people have died.

Of the numbers, de Villa reiterated that the city is still believed to be in the peak period and the curve is flattening — the number of cases over time levelling off — but nonetheless called the public health impacts on the city concerning.

Jennifer Pagliaro is a Toronto-based reporter covering city hall and municipal politics for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @jpags