Our Current State of the Homeless in Canada- the issue of Overcrowding

With nearly 2,700 refugee claimants are currently utilizing Toronto’s shelter system, occupying more than 40 percent of all available beds, creating “huge pressure” and “a strain on our system, according to Mayor Tory. He said this “Without further funds, the city will be forced to enact emergency measures and open up community centers to relocate and accommodate new arrivals. Recently, roughly 10 asylum seekers have been arriving in Toronto every day, Tory said, mostly via Quebec. The province has been dealing with the brunt of an unprecedented influx that has seen more than 67,000 refugee claims filed in Canada between Jan. 2017 and April 2018. More than 28,000 of those claimants, government data shows, entered the country illegally. At current arrival rates, Tory expects Toronto to have 4,485 asylum seekers in its shelter system by Nov. 2018, occupying more than 53 per cent of its beds when the city’s shelter system is “already at an emergency state.” “We can’t shelter them alone anymore,” he added. “And so far from the federal government, the answer has been pretty scant – like, ‘How about not much at all”.