Two 24-hour drop-in centres have been opened this winter at Margaret’s Toronto East Drop-in near Dundas and Sherborne, and St. Felix Centre near Queen and Spadina.

With an average of 290 individuals using both sites each night in the first seven days of January, a relatively mild winter, we can see that the program is needed. The centres are designed so couples can use them, even bring their pets, while accessing critical support services. City Council passed a resolution last fall to fund these centres during the cold January and February winter months after three homeless people died in the span of a few days in January 2015.

The problem: the $416,000 funding required to continue the program for next winter season is not included in the proposed 2016 budget. Unless city councillors add the required funds, lives are in danger of being lost and headlines of the homeless deaths we read about in 2015 will likely be recycled.

Since 1985, an estimated 792 homeless people have died on the streets of Toronto, although the number is likely higher since no one agency is responsible for keeping numbers. Most of these deaths have taken place during the winter months. As the City’s Medical Officer of Health has often told us, cold weather is deadly for people living on the streets, whether it is -1C or -15C, it’s simply not safe.

The city’s operating budget is more than $10 billion this year. The numbers are large, and the detailed line-by-line accounting is hundreds of pages long. The budget process can seem complex and inaccessible.But at its core its about people: how we interact with our parks and greenspaces, how we get around, whether by bike, car or transit, and whether those on the streets can find warm shelter during the cold.

The Economist says we’re “the world’s best city to live in.” Metropolis Magazine describes our city as “the most livable… in the world.” Places Rated Almanac says Toronto is the “safest large metropolitan area in North America.”

But there is another series of lists we’re at the top of for all the wrong reasons.

The United Way recently produced yet another report showing that Toronto is now the inequality capital of Canada, with the gap between rich and poor growing faster than any other city. The Children’s Aid Society reports that child poverty in Toronto is the worse of any city in Canada, with 1 in 4 children living in poverty.

The real test of a city is how it cares for people. On that measure, the City of Toronto is failing its most vulnerable. Restoring the $416,000 needed for the 24-hour cold weather drop-in program will not reverse our growing inequality or child poverty. It won’t end homelessness, but it may save some lives.

Joe Cressy is City Councillor for Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina.

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