Councillor argues for better consultation on new shelters

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Councillor James Pasternak wants to break Toronto’s silence on shelters.

Pasternak has put forward a member’s motion that calls for individual consultations with the public for six new proposed homeless shelters, with input from the local councillor on when meetings take place and whether they’re held online or in person.

“The city has delegated the public consultation process to the community engagement facilitator public progress team,” the motion says. “Community consultation sessions and public engagement campaigns have taken on a generalized approach, which does not appropriately reflect the needs and concerns of local communities which will be impacted by the six new proposed shelters.”

City council will consider the idea when it meets this week, starting Wednesday.

One of the six shelters is planned to open at 1220 Wilson Ave. – in the southwest corner of Pasternak’s ward – by 2030. Pasternak did not respond to a request for comment from the Toronto Sun, but previously expressed hope a shelter could instead be hosted at nearby Humber River Hospital.

Earlier this month, the Sun reported on the Niagara Neighbours for Community Safety group’s battle to have their voices heard regarding 629 Adelaide St. W., a relocated shelter expected to open in the coming weeks. That came after a third-party consultant’s report suggested “NIMBYism” is stigmatizing Toronto’s homeless population.

On Tuesday afternoon, Niagara Neighbours co-founder Diane Chester told the Sun that the city was busy power washing the brick building at 629 Adelaide. She said while she wants more transparency and consultation in setting up shelters, the fact that a councillor had to bring forward such a motion “makes you wonder what’s going on at city hall.”

“They can’t get any support from anybody – like, even from the mayor – for their neighbourhoods. It just shocked me,” Chester said. “I was shocked that they had to go to those lengths, and that nobody is willing to have a dialogue.”

The member’s motion was seconded by Parthi Kandavel. Like Pasternak, Kandavel did not respond to a request for comment from the Sun but has gone public with concerns about an impending shelter, in his case at 2535 Gerrard St. E. in his ward of Scarborough Southwest.

Last year, Kandavel expressed concern about that site, which is near a daycare. That was followed by a public rebuke from Mayor Olivia Chow.

“The location of shelters remain confidential, and I sure hope the councillor did not violate the confidentiality clause, because the city has not announced where are these shelters,” Chow said last year, according to a CityNews report.

Kandavel himself complained about the consultation process. “I was never given the space and place to give the city feedback about what it takes to make shelters work in our community and to push back on what doesn’t,” Kandavel told the National Post, according to a report published early this year.

He also told the Post he has reservations about the use of third-party consultants, and said he wanted the city’s representatives to meet the public in person.

The six proposed sites are no secret anymore, and the City of Toronto has them listed on its website. Along with the Wilson and Gerrard sites, shelters are expected to come to 1615 Dufferin St., 2204-2212 Eglinton Ave. W., 68 Sheppard Ave. and 66 Third St.

Online meetings will be held next week regarding changes to zoning for the six shelter sites. The Gerrard and Dufferin shelters are due to open first, in 2027.

While it seems too late for major changes at Adelaide, Chester said if city hall wants to get serious about consultation, her neighbours deserve to know the “safety plan.”

The Adelaide shelter is just steps from a school, a church and a number of tidy row homes. The city can still host a town hall or send bureaucrats to knock on doors to show they are listening, she said.

“The problem with our neighbourhood,” Chester said, “is the trust has been broken from the beginning.”

jholmes@postmedia.com