Mohammed Alhasan breathed a sigh of relief when he landed in Montreal earlier this year, fleeing the violence in Syria.

The refugee claimant decided Toronto would be his new home: a big city touted for its sanctuary status and better access to services for newcomers.

But ever since he arrived in late March, Alhasan has been trapped in the city’s shelter system alongside thousands of other refugees, who have nowhere else to stay while they wait for their claims to be approved.

“We come here to try to save our lives,” Alhasan said. “But, as a refugee, my hope is almost gone now.”

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As of this month, refugees make up nearly 38 per cent of Toronto’s shelter population on any given night, according to city data. That’s up from 11.2 per cent two years ago. The sharp increase worries city staff, already dealing with a continuing crisis of capacity that has not relented even though temperatures have warmed.

At a Thursday morning press conference, Mayor John Tory and city officials said the status quo will not suffice and that help is needed immediately from other governments so the city can continue to welcome refugees.

“The City of Toronto is here to help. We are committed to providing shelter and support to all those who need it,” Tory said at city hall. “But we can no longer do it alone.”

Knowing no one, Alhasan arrived in Toronto after a five-hour bus ride one frigid night with just a phone number for the city’s shelter program. They told him the only location with space was the Better Living Centre, pressed into service this winter as a 24-7 cold-weather respite centre.

“I was in shock,” said Alhasan. “Very nasty place.”

The centre was overcrowded. Fights would break out. Some people used drugs and left needles in bathrooms.

He continues to bounce from shelter to shelter while he waits for the federal government to process his claim.

Government-assisted refugees automatically find accommodation through settlement services, and privately sponsored refugees are housed by families or community organizations. But refugee claimants such as Alhasan are increasing in number and find themselves stuck in the city’s shelters.

The city spent or budgeted $64.5 million for the shelter and housing of refugee claimants in 2017 and 2018, including staff, food and motel spaces, city staff said.

“These shelters are more crowded than we want them to be,” said Patricia Anderson, manager of the city’s shelter, support and housing administration. She said the Better Living Centre has security conducting regular patrols to minimize violence and drug use.

The city now counts 6,740 beds in its emergency shelter system, including 2,283 rented in motels. At last count, Toronto’s shelter system was at 96-per-cent capacity; the council-set standard is 90 per cent, which has never been met. Space for refugee families is in particularly high demand; the city’s drop-ins and respite centres, which were about 85 per cent full, normally can’t accommodate families.

This winter, at the urging of front-line advocates, the city sought and gained access to the armoury in Moss Park and opened other temporary locations as 24-hour winter respites to deal with the lack of space. The province also renovated a former youth jail. Two centrally located respite sites are scheduled to close next month, and two city-run hockey rinks outside the core will open to replace them.

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“We want refugees to be as big a success story for themselves and for Canada as have been prior generations of refugees,” Tory said Thursday morning.

“But that goal is simply not achievable if the other governments, especially the federal government, don’t step up and take much greater responsibility and help us in an area of their jurisdiction.”

The city is asking the provincial and federal governments to reimburse costs; provide continuing financial support; make new non-municipal facilities available, with staff to operate them; and co-ordinate placement of refugees in “regional” locations outside the city’s shelter system.

Premier Kathleen Wynne responded by saying the provincial government will “absolutely” work with the city.

“One of the things we can do — we have already done, but can do more of — is look for provincial buildings, provincial spaces that can be used as shelter space,” she told reporters after making a child-care announcement at Toronto’s King Edward public school, near College and Bathurst Sts.

“I don’t want to pre-empt that process, and I know that our officials will work with city officials,” she said. “We also need to call on the federal government to work with us. We need all these levels (to work together), to make sure that these people have a decent space to be in, that they get all the protections that they need.”

The city’s statement Thursday was a response to Quebec’s recent decision to close off its 1,850-bed shelter system to new refugee claimants. According to the provincial government, Quebec is overburdened by the number of people that continue to cross the border from the U.S.

The federal government has said it is working on a “triage” plan to shuttle those claimants to Ontario, although details are not yet clear. Paul Raftis, interim general manager for the city’s shelter, support and housing administration, said 400 refugee claimants are expected to arrive daily in Toronto from Quebec.

Francisco Rico-Martinez, who runs the FCJ Refugee Centre in Toronto, said one of the reasons behind the refugee increase is illegal border-crossing by people fleeing U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.

“In the beginning, people were assuming that everybody is going to stay in Quebec, but many of those who speak English are coming to Toronto,” Rico-Martinez said.

His centre, which assists families with the shelter and application process, has seen its intake increase to about 60 cases every Monday for the past several months. Before 2016, they would receive between 10 to 20 cases.

“It’s overwhelming, but this is the new reality. The situation in the United States … it’s not a place for migrants anymore,” he said. “People are going to keep coming.”

With files from Kris Rushowy and Allan Woods

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