'We have reached a tipping point': Ottawa Mission calls for new federal funding to support newcomers

The Ottawa Mission is calling on the federal government to introduce sweeping policy changes to help deal with an influx of asylum seekers, including establishing new welcoming centres, as newcomers to Canada continue to put a strain on the shelter system in the capital.

The shelter in downtown Ottawa provided emergency accommodations to an average of 177 men every night in 2022-2023, while the number of meals served surpassed one million a year last year.

The Mission released a new report highlighting "epidemic levels of homelessness and food security" in Ottawa on Thursday, warning its capacity to serve vulnerable members of the community has been stretched.

"We have reached a tipping point in Ottawa, our province and our country where housing precarity and food insecurity are now so severe that the lives of millions of people are compromised by these conjoined factors," the Ottawa Mission said in its annual report.

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The report says that while shelter occupancy declined in Ottawa in 2020 and 2021 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, it rose to nearly 8,000 in 2022 and, "by 2023, all shelters in Ottawa were once again at over 100 per cent capacity."

"In June 2023, numerous asylum seekers began arriving at the shelter, pushing its over-occupancy levels even higher, leaving The Mission no choice but to have dozens of people stay in chairs in its lounge overnight each night and turn others away to alternate accommodation," the report says.

The Ottawa Mission says asylum seekers accounted for nearly 65 per cent of all people staying in the city's shelters in September and nearly 80 per cent in October, before dropping to 30 per cent in January and 25 per cent in February.

"It was unbelievable that 79 per cent of the people coming in our doors were newcomers to Canada who had nowhere else to go," said Ottawa Mission CEO Peter Tilley. "I even know of a story of one gentleman who was at the airport and the airport security guard said, I think you're supposed to go to the Ottawa Mission. We had a family of four show up here looking for housing, two parents and two children."

Officials at the shelter are calling on the federal government to end the distinction between refugee claimants and asylum seekers by "establishing new welcome centres to support new arrivals," and provide additional funding to the city of Ottawa to support newcomers.

"Since last summer, we’ve also had dozens of newcomers and others sleeping on chairs in our lounge every night, and have had to turn others away to alternative accommodation," Ashley Potter, manager of frontline services for The Mission, said. "We’ve also had to purchase winter clothing as well as toiletries since many newcomers arrive here with nothing. Meeting this increased need has further strained our budgets for these items.”

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As part of the new deal between the Ontario government and the city of Ottawa announced last month, Ontario will provide the city up to $120 million for shelters and homelessness supports over three years, but the funding is conditional on the federal government providing $228 million for refugee and asylum seeker supports to the city.

The Ottawa Mission says the newcomers turning to shelters for support are putting a strain on its operations, which is already seeing a rise in requests.

"With so many newcomers now under our roof, our annual meal numbers will rise even higher to between 1.1 to 1.2 million meals," Chef Ric Allen-Watson, Director of Food Services at the Ottawa Mission, said in a statement. "Our food truck program costs almost $1 million per year, and we have to absorb these additional costs on top of that."

The shelter's food truck program has 35 stops across the week, providing more than 7,000 meals to vulnerable people, including children.

"In a country like Canada, you would expect not to be dealing with one in five Canadians worried about where their next meal is going to come from, parents having to go without a meal so that their children can eat. These are not problems common to us as Canadians, yet they're happening now," Watson said. "It's becoming way too expensive and it just seems to keep growing. I think we need help from the federal government for sure."

The Ottawa Mission is also calling on the federal government to implement a Homelessness Prevention and Housing Benefit to support households at risk of homelessness and help people leave homelessness, and implement a grocer's code of conduct to "ensure transparency and fairness" in food prices.

The Ontario government is being urged to reintroduce rent controls to buildings built after November 2018, increase the Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit and increasing social assistance rates "to enable those receiving this benefit to meet their expenses without having to work multiple positions."

One asylum seeker, who spoke to CTV News Ottawa on condition of anonymity, fearful that speaking to the media could jeopardize his refugee claim, said the experience has been isolating.

"You're cut off from what you know and, you know, it's hard to work. You're not allowed to work and to get work permits. And that takes some time. The isolation comes from, even if you know other people from other countries, yet you are isolated from loved ones most of the time and for an extended period of time," he said.

The Mission is calling on the city of Ottawa to implement all the recommendations from the auditor general's report on housing, including "adopting a clear and consistent definition of affordable housing for use across the city" and "formalize and operationalize the land strategy for affordable housing."

Auditor General Nathalie Gougeon released a report saying Ottawa has not met its new affordable housing units target in recent years.  The Housing Services Long-Range Financial Plan has a goal of adding 500 new affordable and/or supportive housing units a year, but only 30 were completed in 2022 and 214 were completed or anticipated last year.

"As Ottawa’s oldest and largest homeless shelter, we urge all governments to work together to ensure that safe, appropriate and affordable housing and nutritious food are human rights for all Canadians and not a luxury only for those who can afford them," Tilley said.

--With files from CTV News Ottawa's Natalie van Rooy