Councillors I am Saleh Waziruddin.
You’ve heard before how the Province and Federal government should fund more affordable, supportive, and social housing so that we don’t need shelters and threshold policies, and I’m sure you’re working for that. I’m not here to tell you that, though it’s worth saying again.
The Region has a tiered approach to action at different temperatures, but the approach to shelter is all or nothing: either you get a shelter, or you get the streets, which could kill or hurt you.
There is a tiered approach to shelter. Some cities have warming centres, Toronto has “winter respite sites” – these don’t need the same resources as a full shelter. If we can’t house and feed everyone we can at least have a place to get out of the cold and stay alive.
Not every place might be able to offer staff or food, but I am sure there places are willing to provide at least a warm spot for people to duck in to. It’s better than the alternative which is no alternative.
In many cities these less-than-shelter options are not triggered by temperature thresholds but are available throughout the cold season, like Toronto’s “winter respite sites.”
Some of the temperature thresholds are based on when it’s too cold for school children to have recess outside. But being outside for recess is a lot more comfortable than having to live outside all day. Even 10 degrees ABOVE freezing can be difficult after a few hours.
The Region factors in both temperature and wind chill, but it’s missing one more factor. The MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions found injuries more than double for each mm of precipitation. We definitely had a lot of precipitation in Niagara in the last few days. If we need to have thresholds, precipitation should be another reason to lower barriers.
In some of your discussions around why the threshold can’t be changed it’s brought up the average number of days for different threshold temperatures. But we shouldn’t set policies to meet capacity, we should set capacity to meet needs.
One of you asked on the 13th if anyone had been turned away and the answer from staff was capacity hadn’t been reached, but that’s not the same thing. People like Bob Allen are turned away even without reaching capacity. Also shelters can be full in some places while there is still capacity elsewhere in the Region. Everyone needs to be given practical alternatives they can actually choose, but beyond that the Region needs to pro-actively find people and figure out solutions for them, even if it’s a half-solution, instead of limiting ourselves to what we’ve budgeted or planned for as all-or-nothing, nothing being death or injury.
Please pass the motion, no referrals please.
Thank you.