City asks province, federal government for $20M to help house refugees

City council will have to dig deeper into their pockets to help house refugees, and they’re hoping the provincial and federal government will help foot the bill.

The city of Toronto is asking for an addition $20 million to help temporarily house refugees in motels and hotels as of Nov. 1 all the way to December 2018.

A city report from earlier this month is calling for action to better manage the influx of refugees coming to Canada and specifically Toronto.

“We’re seeing the report now because we have overspent, the shelters are full and there’s no more space” said Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam.

As of last month, there just over 1200 refugees in need of shelter everyday in the city and nearly three times more than a year and a half ago.

Experts tell us the reasons include natural disasters, geopolitical turmoil or simply the politics in the U.S.

“We need to come up with a better, more permanent solution to deal with increase in demand because maybe the increase that we’re seeing now is the new norm” says Patricia Anderson, Manager for the Partnership Development and Support Committee for the City of Toronto.

According to Councillor Joe Mihevc, that solution includes better integrating refugees in the community from the very beginning.

“We need to get them better settled and oriented in society and it’s much better to do that in a neighbourhood or in a community than in a motel” he says.

For Councillor Wong-Tam, the solution isn’t spending additional money.

“I think we can all agree that spending on hotel rooms is not an economic way to spend scarce public dollars, I think we can all agree affordable housing is the long-term solution”

Councillor Wong Tam also says it is important to welcome new Canadians, and the investment will pay off in the long run as they contribute to society. She hopes all three levels of government will come to the table to come up with a viable long terms solution.