海角社区官网

For as long as amalgamated 海角社区官网has existed, our city government has been writing reports about how to do better next year (spoiler: more emergency shelter capacity in the short term, more supportive housing in the long term). And then every spring when patio season arrives and we all break out our short pants, those reports get filed away on the shelf and forgotten until, after a long summer and fall, winter arrives and we are once again shocked at what it brings.

Well, not this year, folks. On Tuesday, the city announced its shelter plan for the coming winter. This year, there will be no shock when it turns out that plan is not good enough to address the problem. Because the city has announced that its plan is not going to be good enough.

Partly in response to city council directives, the plan includes four new warming centres that will open their doors at freezing temperatures much higher than the threshold in previous years. The plan includes adding some beds to the shelter system (by squeezing them closer together) and adding a respite centre. Add it up and there will be scores of new spaces available.

But the homeless population in 海角社区官网has grown by hundreds 鈥� almost a thousand 鈥� even since last year鈥檚 disastrously high numbers that overwhelmed the shelter system. So, as my colleague Victoria Gibson reported earlier this week, the city is acknowledging that the new measures are going to fall far short and there may well be 鈥渕ore demand for emergency beds than they鈥檙e able to accommodate.鈥�

This is progress, of a sort. The first step to solving a problem is acknowledging that you have a problem. As outreach worker Greg Cook, who works with homeless people trying to find shelter through the organization Sanctuary 海角社区官网told Gibson, 鈥淚f I can say anything good about this morning, it鈥檚 that the city is acknowledging the situation is really bad.鈥�

Is that becoming a trend? When the mayor gave her season-ending press conference this week to recap the season of Caf茅TO patios, she didn鈥檛 try to pretend this year鈥檚 attempt to make the program permanent was a roaring success. When the new rules were implemented in the spring, we all predicted it was going to be terrible, even as city officials denied it. And then it was terrible, so now we get an acknowledgment of the problems and a promise to take concrete steps to make it better next year. A new traffic congestion plan going to a council committee doesn鈥檛 much promise to solve anything, but it does acknowledge the 鈥渦phill battle鈥� of fighting congestion is faring worse than ever (even with fewer people commuting in cars than before the pandemic) and because 鈥渨e are the busiest city in North America for construction, hands down,鈥� according to Roger Browne, director of traffic management for Toronto鈥檚 government, leading to an 鈥渦nprecedented鈥� number of road closures.

No one鈥檚 going to accept 鈥渙ur plans are inadequate to deal with the problem鈥� as any kind of victory, but compared to past practices of smiling confidently and claiming the problems are as good as solved already, maybe it is a step in the right direction. Officials aware of what needs to be done, even if they lack the capacity to do it immediately, and they鈥檙e rowing in the right direction. Progress. On some of these issues, we might even consider it an encouraging sign.

When it comes to sheltering the homeless, however, that鈥檚 harder to swallow. This isn鈥檛 a hockey game where you can say everyone was working hard and getting better and putting in their best effort and call it a moral victory. Because when it comes to winter shelter for the homeless, the consequences of failure are that our fellow citizens of this city are forced to spend their days and nights suffering outdoors in freezing cold temperatures for days or weeks at a time, often in pain. The consequences are too often that some of those fellow citizens die.

That鈥檚 not good enough. The people in charge of the plan have told us it won鈥檛 be good enough. That could be a step in the right direction. But when we鈥檙e talking about a life and death question affecting thousands of people, we don鈥檛 just need a step in the right direction, we need a sprint.

Come the first 鈥� or the second, or the third 鈥� deep freeze of the season, we鈥檒l once again find ourselves unprepared to prevent suffering and potential loss of life. But breaking with tradition, this time no one will be shocked, because the inadequacy of our plan is detailed in the plan itself.

When people are freezing, I expect there will be little solace in the knowledge we saw it coming.