Tahnee Pitter-Duncan lives in a transitional shelter with her two-year-old daughter. The 25-year-old single mother said she first became homeless in 2019 when she was pregnant.
Despite these circumstances, she hasn’t been given a subsidized housing unit by the city of Toronto.
“Being in a shelter gave me priority but they told me it means nothing at this point because of how long the waitlist is,” Pitter-Duncan said.
There are currently 81,000 people on the Toronto Community Housing subsidized housing waitlist, according to the city of Toronto’s latest report.
The city said applicants could face wait times ranging from seven years for a bachelor unit, to 10 years or more for larger-sized units.
However, wait times can be significantly shorter for people who are in priority conditions.
According to the city, priority conditions can include applicants who are homeless. Despite being homeless, Pitter-Duncan still awaits the day she is offered a subsidized housing unit.
Pitter-Duncan said this makes her question if she and her daughter will be housed promptly.
“It’s really sad to know that like people are coming saying that they’ve been on the waitlist since 2010,” she said. “So, like what does that mean for us?”
Homeless shelters have been offered as a temporary solution, but many could experience trouble getting into the system due to shelters being in high demand.
According to the city’s central intake data, the average daily number of shelter occupancy reached 8,240 in October, the highest so far this year.
As a result, this caused a strain on the shelter system.
The city’s central intake data reported that the daily number of callers unable to be placed in shelters in October reached a high of 186.
Meanwhile, the daily number of callers placed in shelters in October reached 18.
Although many who are experiencing homelessness are looking to shelters for assistance, Pitter-Duncan said the shelter system still brings more issues.
“Shelters don’t provide the necessary means to help people transition from being homeless and if anything can cause them more trauma than they originally started with,” she said.
Community and crisis response worker Diana Chan McNally said safety was a key concern when evaluating the shelter system.
“Honestly, it is not safe,” McNally said. “I wouldn’t go into it as someone who does this work, I wouldn’t live there. I would live outside.”
McNally said the shelter system is particularly unsafe for minority groups.
“Because don’t think that white supremacy and ableism and transphobia don’t exist in the shelter system,” she said.
The city of Toronto released its Winter 2022/23 action plan to accommodate those who are experiencing homelessness.
The city said in a news release it will add 230 new additional spaces to the shelter system and also activate 60 additional spaces at warming centres across the city during periods of extreme cold weather.
This comes after the city released its 2020 to 2030 housing action plan. The decade-long plan promises to build 40,000 new affordable rental homes across the city.
However, housing advocates and community workers urged the city to apply alternative measures to help ease the effects of homelessness.
Housing advocate group Shelter and Housing Justice Network Toronto organized a rally on Nov. 22 to mark National Housing Day.
Organizers made a list of demands for all levels of government, which includes building 90,000 subsidized housing units to address the growing waitlist.
Housing advocate and community organizer John Clarke spoke at the rally and criticized housing efforts being made by the city.
“We have to demand truly affordable housing, and that means getting back to a fight for social housing,” Clarke said. “We want a commitment to house people adequately and decently at rents they can afford”.
In response to the city’s action plans McNally said housing supply was not the leading factor causing homelessness.
“It’s not a supply issue. Yes, we do need more housing but it’s not just that,” she said. “It has to be rent-controlled, it has to be accessible, people have to be able to afford it and sustain it.”
McNally said that when addressing the issue of housing affordability, other barriers need to be considered.
“Barriers aren’t just about you know, being homeless, they’re about accessing any kind of services and supports within broader society, employment, education, et cetera,” she said.
Dwight Howard, operations manager at Horizons for Youth homeless shelter in Toronto, said these barriers can also lower access to mental health support.
“We’ve seen an increase in I think addictions and mental health. So, it’s a new set of challenges for our shelter,” Howard said. “And you know, we’ve had to hire a mental health and wellness person”.
Pitter-Duncan said housing is a good starting point, but governments need to invest more in education, job training, and support services to effectively reduce homelessness.
“We would see a lot more people within the next decade transition and get better,” she said.
Looking ahead, Pitter-Duncan said she hopes to one day be able to provide that support by mentoring youth and single mothers.