Toronto’s transit system is no longer willing to offer up parked buses at Spadina Station as stopgap winter homeless shelters, with a new report saying the model is no longer viable.
The report from the TTC, released this week in advance of an upcoming board meeting, provides a post-mortem on the controversial program that quietly operated last winter. The buses were originally intended to transport those sheltering in the TTC when it closed to shelters, but with shelters packed all winter, that was rarely possible. In 98 cases, the TTC transported someone to a bed, the report says, but in 5,914 cases, people were left to sleep onboard.
“In consultation with the City of Toronto, it has been determined that TTC buses will only be used to transport individuals to available warming centres and shelters when the temperature reaches –15 Celsius,” the report says.
The report suggests transit workers, instead, urge anyone left on the TTC at night’s end to move to Spadina or Union, where city outreach workers would be stationed. It concedes the $1.2-million initiative last year was riddled with problems, from logistics like heating issues to a lack of social supports.
Initially, the report noted the buses would idle to keep the heat on, raising concerns about diesel fumes and sound. As mobile battery packs and power heaters weren’t strong enough, the TTC eventually switched to electric buses.
With so much demand for shelter, the TTC had to boost the number of buses in use, meaning some had to be parked on the street. And in a city where homelessness is often entwined with mental health and addiction challenges, the report says staff grappled with how to respond to issues around substance use, including disposing of drug paraphernalia, as well as erratic behaviour.
The news of the shelter bus shutdown was welcomed by community workers like Diana Chan McNally, who had raised concerns about the model last winter. “I understand the (idea) behind this was a humanitarian response, but it was misguided, and I appreciate that the TTC is recognizing that,” she said.
“I heard a number of stories about just how awful the conditions were,” added Sanctuary outreach worker Greg Cook. “You’re basically sheltering people and disregarding any basic humane conditions when people are in buses.”Â
°¿²ÔÌýone sub-zero January night, the Star witnessed dozens of people disembarking from the parked vehicles, bags slung over their shoulders as they boarded other buses and streetcars. That fruitless cycle left some workers bewildered, with one streetcar operator calling the scene “inhumane.”
But despite ending the program, the TTC report admitted people will likely still turn to public transit lines for refuge as the winter weather hits — at a time when Toronto’s shelters are turning away hundreds of people nightly.
“It is expected that individuals will also move to other available locations within the network, i.e. streetcars, until stations reopen,” the TTC wrote.
Gord Tanner, who manages the city’s shelter department, forecasted the same scene while unveiling a winter shelter plan on Tuesday. “We know that people will seek shelter on public transit,” he said, noting plans to continue deploying outreach workers within the TTC network.
In recent years, Toronto’s ballooning homelessness crisis has increasingly spilled over into public spaces, including transit, libraries, emergency rooms and a growing number of street encampments.Ìý
To Cook, they’re symptoms of a broken system. “Being an outreach worker, and doing outreach sometimes late at night, maybe you’re going to be able to offer some moral support to somebody, maybe you can offer them some supplies. But if there’s no beds available, there’s no beds available,” he said.Ìý
“And that’s what people need. They need a place to sleep that’s safe, that’s warm, and that allows people the basic necessities of life.”Â
The report will be considered by the TTC board next Tuesday.
With files from Lex Harvey
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