Supporting People During the Day While Strengthening Our Communities

This week at Economic and Community Development Committee, we received an important update on Toronto's daytime drop-in network and the work underway to strengthen these services across the city.

Last summer, I wrote about Toronto's plan to build new shelter spaces. The City's Street Needs Assessment showed that more than 15,000 people rely on shelters and emergency supports, and it confirmed the need for additional shelter infrastructure in every part of Toronto, especially as the number of people experiencing homelessness in North York and Etobicoke continue to grow.

However, shelters and daytime drop-ins serve different purposes.

Shelters provide temporary overnight accommodation, meals, case management, healthcare supports and housing assistance 24 hours a day. Their goal is to help people move into permanent housing. In 2025, Toronto helped 4,754 people move from shelters into permanent homes. The City is also advancing 11 new shelter sites that will add more than 1,000 spaces to the shelter system while replacing large temporary programs with smaller, purpose-built facilities integrated into neighbourhoods.

Daytime drop-ins provide a place for people to spend time during the day while accessing meals, showers, laundry facilities, healthcare supports, recreation programs, referrals and housing services. For many people, they are the first point of contact with the supports that can help prevent homelessness or connect them with housing.

As the weather gets warmer, my office receives more calls about people sleeping in parks or spending extended periods of time in public spaces such as libraries, community centres and shopping areas. For many people in Don Valley North, seeing individuals experiencing homelessness in our local parks and neighbourhood public spaces is a relatively new experience, and while I am proud that so many residents understand the challenges people experiencing homelessness face, they are also concerned when someone appears to be in crisis, struggling with mental health issues or using drugs in public.

Residents are also telling me they are increasingly concerned about public intoxication, drug use, discarded needles and other dangerous paraphernalia in places where families should be able to enjoy parks, playgrounds, and transit safely. These concerns are real, and they deserve to be acknowledged and addressed.

People experiencing homelessness need support, but families, seniors, and transit riders also deserve to feel safe in public spaces. We cannot accept a status quo where vulnerable people are left in crisis while residents are left feeling unsafe.

Investing in access to safe, supportive spaces where people experiencing homelessness can receive help, connect with services and work toward stable housing means that all users of public spaces can feel secure, welcomed and well-supported.

That work must be paired with clear expectations around public safety and public order. The goal is not simply to move people from one public space to another, but to connect them with meaningful supports while ensuring parks, transit, and community spaces remain safe and accessible for everyone.

That is why daytime drop-ins are such an important part of Toronto's homelessness response system.

Demand for these services continues to grow. Visits to City-funded daytime drop-ins increased 27% since 2022. Between April and September 2025 alone, daytime drop-ins provided more than 618,000 visits, served over 536,000 meals onsite and distributed more than 163,000 take-out meals.

Many drop-ins are also responding to increasingly complex needs. Many of these challenges have become more visible in public spaces over the past year. The closure of supervised consumption services by the Province has altered where some people access supports, with municipalities and transit systems increasingly managing the consequences in parks, stations, and other public spaces.

The report before committee outlines ongoing work between the City and the drop-in sector to stabilize these services. A joint working group is reviewing staffing, funding and long-term sustainability so organizations can continue meeting growing demand while supporting workers who provide these critical services every day. At the same time, the City is now pursuing new approaches to address the impacts residents are seeing every day. This includes work with the Toronto Police Service and TTC on a dedicated TTC Safety Strategy, as well as a new pilot at Union Station that to move people more quickly in crisis to supports and away from the station.

I was especially proud to see the role that North York organizations continue to play in this work. Through the Creating Health Plus program, operated by North York Harvest Food Bank, food is purchased and distributed to 47 daytime drop-in programs across Toronto. This local leadership helps ensure that thousands of meals reach people who need them every week.

While the City continues to invest in shelters, housing supports and daytime drop-in programs, the reality is that Toronto cannot address these challenges on its own.

Our social safety net needs strengthening, and that work requires all orders of government at the table. No single municipality can solve a homelessness, mental health and addictions crisis on its own. Toronto is investing heavily in shelters, housing supports and outreach services, but lasting solutions required coordinated action from all levels of government.

We need the Province to invest in Rent-Geared-to-Income housing, mental health and addictions services, and social assistance programs that reflect today's cost of living. We need the federal government to fulfill its commitments to support refugee and asylum claimant shelter programs and transition services, which continue to place significant pressure on Toronto's homelessness response system.

We also need both governments to expand investments in programs that are already delivering results, including the Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit, which has helped thousands of people move from shelters into stable housing. Continued capital funding for new shelters and affordable housing is equally important as we work to replace temporary emergency hotel programs with permanent, purpose-built facilities across the city.

Every day, I see the dedication of frontline workers, community organizations and residents who want to be part of the solution. Their efforts are essential, but lasting progress will require sustained commitment from every level of government. When people have access to housing, healthcare, income supports and community services, everyone benefits, and our neighbourhoods become stronger, healthier and more connected.

Compassion and public safety are not competing priorities. Residents deserve to feel safe taking the TTC, visiting a park or bringing their children to a playground, and vulnerable people deserve access to the housing, treatment, and supports they need. I will continue advocating for a common-sense approach that moves people from crisis to care, addresses the growing challenges we are seeing in public spaces, and restores confidence that our parks, transit system and neighbourhoods are safe, welcoming places for everyone.

My Statement on the Death of Officer Marc Pinizzotto

Today is a heartbreaking day for Toronto.

Emergency Task Force Training Constable Marc Pinizzotto of the Toronto Police Service tragically gave his life serving and protecting our city.

As Chair of The Toronto Police Service Board, I extend my deepest condolences to the officer’s family, loved ones, friends and colleagues.  Their loss is unimaginable, and I mourn alongside them.

Every officer understands the risks that come with the badge. Today, one of Toronto’s officers made the ultimate sacrifice in service of others.

This loss will be felt across the Toronto Police Service and throughout our city. Toronto stands with the officer’s family and the entire Service during this difficult time.

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