Photo credit: CP24
Plans are underway to support Toronto’s most vulnerable residents during the coldest months of the year.
CP24 reports that the city’s 2026/2027 Winter Plan for People Experiencing Homelessness, which will be in effect from Nov. 15 to April 15, will see the addition of 1,533 shelter and housing spaces, 18 per cent more than in the previous year.
Specifically, there will be 588 more permanent supportive and subsidized units, 505 new shelter and 24-hour winter respite site spaces, 254 additional warming centre spaces, and 186 surge capacity spaces.
Around 500 of those spaces will be open the entire winter, while the remaining are weather dependent, the city noted.
Lorraine Lam, an organizer with the advocacy group Shelter and Housing Justice Network, told CTV News that people experiencing homelessness need to know they have a stable place to go when the mercury drops.
“People are surviving in the best of their abilities, but there is a huge risk for cold injury and frostbite and even death,” she said in response to the city’s plan to only keep open around 500 extra spaces allwinter.
The city says aside from adding more shelter and housing spaces it will be deploying more street outreach teams focused on trying to get people indoors this winter throughout the city on days when there are extreme cold weather alerts. Workers will also be handing out cold weather supplies, warm clothing, and sleeping bags, among other things.
Further, the hours of operation will be expanded at several of Toronto’s drop-in centres, which provide food, healthcare, showers, a place to do laundry, and social and recreational activities for people experiencing homelessness. Those centres will be open a total of 252 more hours each week from Nov. 15 to April 15.
“Our primary concerns are the expansion of shelter capacity, activating and operating warming centres, opening extra surge capacity when we hit extreme cold, increasing our street outreach services and supporting people’s moves into permanent and long-term housing,” Gord Tanner, general manager of the city’s Shelter and Support Services Division, said during a Monday morning news conference.
Work is now underway to add 1,600 long-term shelter spaces through the City of Toronto’s Homelessness Services Capital Infrastructure Strategy.
More details about Toronto’s 2026/2027 Winter Plan for People Experiencing Homelessness can be found online.
