Ottawa launches new emergency shelter task force

The city of Ottawa is launching a new task force to address emergency shelter usage in the capital, as officials warn the shelter system will be "overwhelmed" this winter.

Mayor Mark Sutcliffe announced councillors Marty Carr, Laura, Dudas, Allan Hubley, Stephanie Plante and Ariel Troster will join city staff for the 'Emergency Shelter Crisis Taskforce.'

"As winter approaches, we need to make sure everyone has a warm place to stay," Sutcliffe said in a statement on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Sutcliffe says the city needs to open more physical distancing centres, and find more places for people to sleep.

Statistics released by the city of Ottawa show there were more than 700 single adults in the shelter system in January, February and March 2023. That number is forecast to jump to more than 900 this winter.

"I think we are all very concerned with the colder weather approaching about the fact our shelter system is at capacity now and is going to be overwhelmed this winter as more people seek shelter," Sutcliffe said Thursday morning.

There are nearly 280 people currently homeless in Ottawa, according to the city.

The task force will also work with the federal government to identify new places for new arrivals to Canada to be housed so they don't need to rely on the shelter system in Ottawa. The mayor says a large percentage of people staying in Ottawa's shelters right now are refugee claimants and people seeking asylum.

“I’ve been told that something like two thirds of the individuals who are in our shelter system are new arrivals to Canada and we have a policy in Ottawa that we don’t turn anyone away," Sutcliffe said. "There are people coming here from other cities to seek shelter."

Dudas, the co-chair of the committee, says the task force will ensure city staff have "quick access and supports and approvals" they need to take action quickly to address the need, and have the staff work with services operating in Ottawa.

"This is an all hands on deck response to what is truly a dire situation, one where we cannot allow vulnerable people to sleep on the streets," Dudas told Newstalk 580 CFRA Thursday afternoon.

Matthew House Ottawa, which works with refugee claimants, says there needs to be more support to avoid emergency shelters becoming overrun.  

"We see well over 100 people calling looking for access to our beds per month and that’s probably ten times more than we have capacity for," Allan Reesor-McDowell, executive director of Matthew House Ottawa, said.

"Every refugee claimant that arrives in Ottawa from the shelter system, we try to be that alternative for the emergency shelters," Reesor-McDowell said.

"We divert people from the shelter system. It is lower cost and the outcomes end up being better because they are not stuck in limbo and that’s the main thing that we see with refugee claimants. If they end up in the shelter system, it is very hard to move out of that pattern of homelessness."

Dudas says one of the main priorities for the task force is finding space for people to stay.

"We are looking at any spaces within the city, within the private sector, we will be looking at all opportunities to access space to keep people off the streets in the cold," Dudas said.

Dudas said "there might be sacrifices we have to make" to find spaces this winter within city facilities.

"We know that over the next couple of months there will be hard decisions that have to be made, and that might mean that we have to use other public spaces to house people."

Ottawa Mission CEO Peter Tilley says 73 per cent of people using the downtown shelter in September were new arrivals, refugees and asylum seekers.

"People are coming here, but it seems the breakdown is when they arrive, the service stop there as far as somebody being there to greet them and get them settled into this new county they've arrived at," Tilley told Newstalk 580 CFRA's Ottawa Now with Kristy Cameron. "Word spreads, and it seems the Mission is the one shelter of the ones here, and Cornerstone for Women for female arrivals. Our challenges are great enough with the number of people already on the streets being at record levels, let alone to have this added to the equation."

Tilley says the task force is designed to "get things done" and help people this winter.