The Better Living Centre at Exhibition Place in Toronto will be used as a respite service location to house the homeless during the winter months, city officials announced on Thursday.
The 24/7 service centre will be able to accommodate 100 people by mid-January as part of the city’s plan to allocate additional shelter space for the homeless.
“The Better Living Centre is the best option to provide additional shelter space through the winter,” Toronto Mayor John Tory told reporters during a press conference at city hall Thursday morning.
“It is a building we own, we are not displacing or competing with any other activities in that building.”
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Earlier this month, city council voted to find 400 beds or sleeping spaces to mitigate Toronto’s growing need for shelters.
“We are not standing still even in the light of this progress. Doing nothing was never an option,” Tory said. “But we did want to make sure we did the right thing in the right way.”
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Tory said the city is on track to fulfil its promise on the additional shelter spaces. So far 84 have already opened and 230 more will be available in the next three weeks.
“A number of these spaces, as again contemplated by the discussions that took place at council, will be in motels. The advantage of these locations is that we can get them up and running quickly,” Tory said.
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“In other cases, again as contemplated by the city council discussions, we have found space within existing shelter facilities. And I’ll make a point of mentioning that for each of these spaces, we have maintained and continue to maintain that shelter standards apply when we open these spaces.”
City council approved $10.6 million to make the shelter spaces available.
“We are moving as quickly as possible to address the unprecedented demand on the shelter system,” Tory said. “I think what we’re doing is exactly what we said we would do, which is doing the right thing in the right way.”
VIDEO: Toronto Mayor John Tory to push for 400 beds for shelter system
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