With their four children in tow, asylum seekers Adenike and Afolabi spent six months looking for an apartment in Toronto.

Like thousands of others who crossed the Canada-U.S. border and made their way to shelters in Toronto, they found themselves squeezed in a housing crunch that has become a focal point for both a public backlash and a political spat.

Weeks ago, Mayor John Tory raised an alarm that Toronto’s shelter system was at capacity due to the influx of asylum seekers. Ottawa promised to help, but the new Ontario government blamed the federal government for allowing “illegal border crossers” to flood into the country, saddling the city with a “mess.”

On top of that, emergency summer shelters set up in Humber and Centennial college residences had to be cleared out by Aug. 9 to allow students to return.

Read more:

Triage system for asylum seekers in Toronto, Montreal shelters won’t arrive until late September

Ottawa says it will support Toronto in housing asylum-seekers after Ford snub

Opinion | Asylum seekers not to blame for shelter crisis

On Friday, Tory and Border Security Minister Bill Blair announced the federal government is delivering a previously promised $11 million to help operate the shelters, and establishing a triage centre in Cornwall, Ont., to divert irregular border crossers to municipalities outside of Toronto.

Also, most of the 675 refugees who had been living in college dorms had moved into GTA hotels contracted by the federal government by Friday.

In the meantime, the 2,550 refugees remaining in the city’s shelter system are waiting on permanent housing.

“It’s so tough trying to find an apartment in Toronto. There are so many people looking. For each apartment, you have 20 applicants competing,” said Adenike, 38, a nurse whose family has been living in temporary shelters since moving to the city in February.

The family, who withheld their last name to protect their safety, fled Nigeria in 2015 after local authorities demanded their eldest daughter undergo genital circumcision. They landed in Houston, Texas on visitors’ visas and remained there after the visas expired; in light of stepped-up deportation efforts by the Trump administration, they decided to head to Canada. They walked over the border at Lacolle, Que., in late January and stayed a month in a Montreal shelter.

“Some people think that we come here to take money from your government. That’s just not the case. We don’t want to take up the shelter space. We don’t want to be on assistance,” added Adenike. “We would like to be on our own as soon as possible.”

Asylum seekers currently make up 40 per cent of Toronto’s shelter population, up from 11 per cent in 2016. Most of the recent arrivals are Nigerians who left their country over opposition to the cultural practice of female genital circumcision, fear of persecution for sexual orientation, or to avoid terror groups such as Boko Haram.

Unlike the warm embrace that greeted Syrian refugees in 2016, this wave of asylum seekers landed to waning public support. An Angus Reid poll this week found 67 per cent of Canadians are calling the current situation a “crisis,” and 58 per cent say Canada is “too generous” to irregular border crossers.

They are also facing a tighter and costlier rental market than two years ago.

Back in 2016, it took settlement workers an average of 39 days to move the Syrians from temporary shelters to permanent housing. It now takes almost three months, said Mario Calla, executive director of COSTI Immigrant Services.

With a vacancy rate hovering at 1 per cent, down from 1.4 per cent in 2016, the average monthly rent in Greater Toronto has increased by 11 per cent in the past year, recent real estate data shows.

“Two years ago, we could help clients find a one-bedroom apartment between $900 and $1,050. Now the same unit asks for $1,250,” said Calla, whose agency has helped move 106 families into permanent housing in the past six weeks. “The issue is not as much about the shelter. It’s about finding affordable housing to move people out of the shelters and free up beds.”

In the first six months of this year, RCMP intercepted 10,744 asylum seekers who entered Canada outside of official ports of entry. The monthly arrivals dropped from the peak of 2,560 in April to 1,263 in June.

Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen has been at odds with Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel and Lisa MacLeod, the Ontario minister responsible for immigration, who have called the refugees “illegals” and hounded the Liberals for not having a plan to deal with the “crisis.”

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Such rhetoric could spill into anti-immigrant sentiments across Canada, cautioned Debbie Douglas of the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants.

“Honestly, many people on the ground don’t even know the difference between refugees and immigrants. This language of illegality and criminality is concerning,” said Douglas, adding that all three levels of governments must work together on a regional plan to resettle the asylum seekers from Toronto.

On Friday, there was a sign of federal-municipal collaboration with the confirmation of funding and the announcement of the new triage centre, which is expected to be up and running in a few weeks.

The plan to divert refugees was welcomed by other Ontario municipalities.

“We see this as an opportunity for our communities to rally behind each other and support each other to make sure we are bringing in people and giving them gainful employment opportunities and deploying them into a community that’s safe,” said Randy Hope, mayor of Chatham-Kent, which has a population of 102,000 and previously opened its doors to 75 Syrian refugees.

“Most important is, are there enough skill sets that these people have that could be transferred to full employment opportunities? If they like living here, maybe they can take up continuous residence.”

Peel Region has already committed 31 hotel rooms to house Toronto’s shelter overflow and have offered support in securing employment and permanent housing.

“We have a long and successful history of welcoming newcomers to the community,” said Janice Sheehy, Peel’s commissioner of human services. “Staff from the region of Peel and the city of Toronto are working collaboratively to put the appropriate supports in place to ensure a seamless transition for these families and individuals.”

Compared to the mass resettlement of Syrians who had fled a war-torn country, integrating the recent asylum seekers is a much easier task, said COSTI’s Calla, because the majority of the arrivals are proficient in English and job-ready.

In Toronto, Adenike has been volunteering at a community organization to pave the way to be a personal support worker, while Afolabi, a former banker, has been working full time at a factory since May. Their four children have all eased into the school system with no difficulties.

“We moved from Montreal because we don’t speak French. We felt settled in Toronto right away except that we are still waiting for our refugee hearing,” said Adenike. “We have no family or friends in Toronto. You can send me anywhere in Canada as long as my daughters don’t have to go back to Nigeria and undergo female circumcision.”

On a recent hot summer day, Adenike and Afolabi strolled in a park with their son Fiyi, 8, and daughters, Folabomi, 10, Ifedolapo, 13 and Oyindamola, 15, to enjoy “the air of freedom.”

They recently found a four-bedroom apartment at $1,700 a month and will move in next month.

“My wife and I are well-educated and had good paying jobs in Nigeria. Our family had a good life there,” said Afolabi, 46, “We didn’t want to leave our home, but we have three girls and their well-being is more important than anything else.”