Item - 2023.EC1.5

The Economic and Community Development Committee recommends that:

1. City Council authorize the General Manager, Shelter, Support and Housing Administration, in consultation with the Acting Chief Procurement Officer, to enter into the necessary amending agreements on terms and conditions satisfactory to the General Manager, Shelter, Support and Housing Administration, and in a form satisfactory to the City Solicitor to increase the value and extend the term of twelve (12) existing non-competitive blanket contracts/purchase orders and five (5) existing competitive blanket contracts outlined in Attachment 2, Table 1 and 2 to the report (December 23, 2022) from the General Manager, Shelter, Support and Housing Administration, the Executive Director, Corporate Real Estate Management and the Acting Chief Procurement Officer, to April 30, 2024 and contingent on funding in the 2023 budget.

2. City Council, in accordance with Section 71- 11.1C of the City of Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 71 (Financial Control By-law), grants authority to the Executive Director, Corporate Real Estate Management, to amend contract number 47022573 with A.S.P. Incorporated, to add $1,018,637, net of all taxes and charges ($1,036,565 net of HST recoveries) to the contract, thereby increasing the contract value from $24,429,452 to $25,895,976, net of all taxes and charges ($895,488 net of HST recoveries), as outlined in Attachment 2, Table 3 to the report (December 23, 2022) from the General Manager, Shelter, Support and Housing Administration, the Executive Director, Corporate Real Estate Management and the Acting Chief Procurement Officer.  

3. City Council, in accordance with Section 71- 11.1C of the City of Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 71 (Financial Control By-law), grants authority to the Executive Director, Corporate Real Estate Management, to amend contract number 47021955 with Read Jones Christoffersen Ltd., to add $2,309,318, net of all taxes and charges ($2,349,962 of H.S.T. recoveries) to the contract, thereby increasing the contract value from $19,999,000 net of all applicable taxes and charges ($20,350,982 net of H.S.T. recoveries) to $22,308,318 net of all taxes, as outlined in Attachment 2, Table 4 to the report (December 23, 2022) from the General Manager, Shelter, Support and Housing Administration, the Executive Director, Corporate Real Estate Management and the Acting Chief Procurement Officer.

4. City Council authorize the Executive Director, Corporate Real Estate Management, in consultation with the General Manager, Shelter, Support and Housing Administration, to negotiate and approve lease/licence extensions in relation to the properties identified in Confidential Attachment 1, Table 5, in a form satisfactory to the City Solicitor. The proposed business terms for any such future lease/licence extensions must generally reflect the existing terms and conditions, as amended by the terms and conditions contemplated for that property in Confidential Attachment 1, Table 5 to the report (December 23, 2022) from the General Manager, Shelter, Support and Housing Administration, the Executive Director, Corporate Real Estate Management and the Acting Chief Procurement Officer, and on such other or amended terms and conditions as may be deemed appropriate by the Executive Director, Corporate Real Estate Management, in consultation with the General Manager, Shelter, Support and Housing Administration. The required funding must be available in the Shelter, Support and Housing Administration's approved budget and no extension shall extend later than April 30, 2024 without securing further City Council approval.

5. City Council authorize the public release of Confidential Attachment 1 to the report (December 23, 2022) from the General Manager, Shelter, Support and Housing Administration, the Executive Director, Corporate Real Estate Management and the Acting Chief Procurement Officer upon the expiration of the last agreement of the leased and/or licensed premises, as Confidential Attachment 1 contains instructions to be applied to negotiations carried on or to be carried on by or on behalf of the City of Toronto.

6. City Council direct the General Manager, Shelter, Support and Housing Administration to work with regional Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) partners to establish a coordinated regional response to support the arrival of refugee claimants and/or asylum seekers and to work with the federal and provincial government to provide funding for this purpose.

7. City Council authorize the General Manager, Shelter, Support and Housing Administration, or designate to:

a. Allocate any funds received from the federal and provincial governments, or a related federal or provincial agency or corporation, and enter into agreements with other participating municipalities in support of a coordinated regional response to support the arrival of refugee claimants and/or asylum seekers, such agreements to be on terms and conditions satisfactory to the General Manager, Shelter, Support and Housing Administration, and in a form satisfactory to the City Solicitor; and

b. Allocate any funds received from the federal and provincial governments, or a related federal or provincial agency or corporation, and enter into agreements as may be necessary to provide programs and services to refugee claimants and/or asylum seekers in Toronto in accordance with approved budgets.

8. City Council request the Federal and Provincial Governments to provide support for the planning, programs and services related to large-scale refugee claimant and/or asylum seeker arrivals, including additional dedicated allocations as part of the Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit.

9. City Council direct the General Manager, Shelter, Support and Housing Administration in consultation with the Medical Officer of Health, and the Executive Director, Social Development, Finance and Administration to establish a working group with Ontario Health to collaborate on approaches to support individuals experiencing homelessness who move between hospitals and shelter, including those accessing Emergency Departments and having challenges accessing appropriate shelter, housing or health care.

10. City Council direct the General Manager, Shelter, Support and Housing Administration to work with regional Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) partners to establish a coordinated regional response to support homeless and underhoused individuals in their local communities, and to work with the federal and provincial government to provide funding for this purpose.

11. City Council direct the General Manager, Shelter, Support and Housing Administration to send a letter to the Ontario Minister of Health and Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions requesting more funding for mental health services, crisis beds, withdrawal management services, and treatment programs for people experiencing homelessness in order to properly serve the expansion of the City of Toronto’s shelter bed capacity, and ensure that the City can work with partners to provide necessary health, mental health and harm reduction supports to individuals staying in shelter, and to coordinate these supports as they move through the shelter and housing system.

12. City Council request the General Manager, Shelter, Support and Housing Administration to report to the Economic and Community Development Committee, in the third quarter of 2023, on the feasibility of developing a plan for Shelter Transition and Relocation to Housing, so that clients do not return back to shelters.

13. City Council request the Executive Director, Housing Secretariat and the General Manager, Shelter, Support and Housing Administration to report to the Economic and Community Development Committee, in the third quarter of 2023, on the feasibility of obtaining more rent supplements/housing allowances to assist in transitioning shelter clients to housing.

14. City Council request the General Manager, Shelter, Support and Housing Administration to consider the ongoing use of shelter-hotels to provide single room occupancy unless there is a couple needing shelter and report to the Economic and Community Development Committee in the third quarter of 2023.

15. City Council request the General Manager, Shelter, Support and Housing Administration to consider conducting an audit shelter-hotel operations examining health and safety, harm reduction practices, food quality, rules such as bed checks and COVID infection control practices and report to the Economic Development Committee in the third quarter of 2023.

16. City Council request the Province of Ontario immediately implement recommendation 1 from the Auditor General of Ontario's Value for Money: Homelessness report (December 2021):

- To take a more coordinated and cohesive action oriented approach to preventing and reducing homelessness in Ontario, we recommend that the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing take a lead role, in collaboration with other ministries that fund or directly provide services and supports to people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, in developing a provincial strategy with specific actions, targets, and timelines to collectively aim to address the issues that contribute to homelessness.

17. City Council request the Executive Director, Social Development, Finance and Administration in consultation with the General Manager, Shelter, Support and Housing Administration to explore creating a granting pathway to fund local service organizations that provide emergency housing support for refugee claimants in order to create additional capacity outside of the City’s shelter system.

18. City Council request that the Federal and Provincial Governments provide funding to local service organizations that provide emergency housing support for refugee claimants, in order to create additional capacity outside of the City’s shelter system.

This report provides an update on the COVID-19 Shelter Transition and Relocation Plan, which was adopted by Council on April 6, 2022 to guide a phased, gradual transition from temporary shelter sites. This report provides an update on the phase 1 work plan approved in April 2022, and outlines next steps for phase 2 of the plan in 2023.

There are currently 23 temporary sites operating as part of the City's shelter system, including shelter hotels and non-hotel sites. There is also a program that operates as a partnership with an Indigenous service provider independent of the City's shelter system. These temporary sites, the majority of which were created at the beginning of the pandemic to support physical distancing requirements in the shelter system, shelter approximately 3,000 individuals and are now providing about 30% of the spaces in the City's shelter system. With the wind-down of COVID-19 response funding for shelters from other orders of government, a thoughtful approach to gradually closing the sites is needed. A sudden reversal of these spaces would cause significant disruption to the vital services delivered through the sites and the vulnerable Torontonians who rely upon them.

This report requests the authorities required to implement the COVID-19 Shelter Transition and Relocation Plan for 2023 and 2024. This includes the authority to enter into lease/licence extensions and agreements at temporary shelter sites to continue to support those programs beyond their current contract or lease end dates, and amendments to the associated service agreements. As part of phase 2 of the transition plan, up to five temporary shelter sites will be closed in 2023. If current projections change, the timelines for the plan will be revisited and an update will be provided to Council.

The emergency shelter system plays an important role in supporting the health and wellbeing of those experiencing homelessness, but the solution to homelessness is permanent affordable housing with supports. The success of the COVID-19 Shelter Transition and Relocation Plan is dependent on availability of additional deeply affordable and supportive housing opportunities for people to move out of shelter more quickly. While the City, in partnership with the federal and provincial governments as well as the non-profit sector, has moved rapidly to create almost 3,600 new affordable and supportive housing opportunities for people experiencing homelessness as part of the 24-Month Housing and Homelessness Plan (2021-2022), new and enhanced investments from the federal and provincial governments are necessary to scale up efforts to adequately address Toronto's homelessness challenges. In addition to new supply, investments in homelessness prevention and poverty reduction measures such as increases to social assistance benefit rates and housing benefit program allocations, which better respond to the actual cost of living in Toronto, are necessary to prevent more households from falling into deep poverty and homelessness.