A group of housing advocates in South Etobicoke is speaking out in support of a controversial shelter project, while other residents against it are suing the city over the proposed site.
In March, hundreds of residents, including a local group called New Toronto Initiative, gathered at 66 Third St. to protest a proposed homeless shelter in the lot.
The project is part of the City of Toronto’s 10-year Homelessness Services Capital Infrastructure Strategy (HSCIS), which proposed the construction of an 80-bed homeless shelter in the region back in December 2024.
The same group has now filed a $1-million lawsuit against the city, Ward 3 Etobicoke-Lakeshore councillor Amber Morley, and consultant Bruce Davis of Public Progress, hoping to challenge the site selection. They allege the city didn’t properly consult residents, misled them, and ignored rules in order to approve the project.
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Meanwhile, another group of residents and advocates is speaking out in support of the shelter, claiming that the opposing group has been spreading misinformation about the consultation process and the project itself.
The Etobicoke Lakeshore Shelter Support Coalition (ELSSC) was first formed back in February, after the city led initial resident consultations about the project, according to the group’s Co-Organizer Karen-Luz Sison.
Since then, the group has gathered almost 400 followers on social media and hope to spread support for the local unhoused community.
“Toronto includes people from all walks of life, those who are housed, those who are unhoused, those who are low-income. It’s a very colourful area, and we want to create a neighbourhood and a community that is inclusive of all those people,” Sison told Now Toronto on Thursday.
Toronto’s Street Needs Assessment (SNA) revealed that the number of homeless individuals more than doubled from 7,347 in 2021 to 15,418 by 2024.
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With the staggering growth, Sison says there is now a dramatic need for more affordable housing and shelters in the city, such as the proposed shelter at 66 Third St.
“We can’t afford to delay a project like the 66 Third St. shelter project. It is also not even going to be built until 2028–2030, there’s time to make this project a shining example of what a shelter, a purpose-built shelter, could be, but it requires the whole community to come alongside it and not get in the way, especially when we’re in the housing crisis,” she said.
Despite the New Toronto Initiative claiming the city has not properly consulted with locals for the project, Sison says multiple consultations have happened.
“It was very clear from the get-go that the shelter project was going to happen, and people didn’t like that at all. They wanted to have a say where it was going. But the reality is that no matter where you put a shelter in a city of two million people, there’s going to be resonant pushback because of these unhoused folks.”
The opposing group has also raised concerns about the project being too large to fit into the lot, and the presence of vulnerable groups in the neighbourhood, including seniors and children.
But Sison says since the consultation, the city has addressed these concerns by including zoning amendments that allow for the shelter to be converted into affordable housing units in the future, and has even modified the project to accommodate only 55 beds for unhoused seniors over 55 years old.
“That’s a very important piece of information that’s been missing from this entire discourse around the site not being big enough. Building amendments are going to happen. Building amendments have been approved. There will be space,” she said.
Another piece of misinformation Sison says has been circulating in the neighbourhood is that the shelter would act as a safe consumption site or distribute safe supplies.
“It is going to provide harm reduction services, which are absolutely necessary, considering there’s a huge toxic drug crisis happening right now. And the reality is that people are using substances all over the city, and we need to be able to minimize the deaths caused by overdoses.”
ADVOCATES FIGHTING HOMELESSNESS STIGMA
Although the New Toronto Initiative says it has no issues with supporting unhoused members or having a shelter in the neighbourhood, Sison says many residents might still be worried about safety issues over the shelter.
“You can’t escape the fact that there’s a homelessness crisis in Toronto. I think the difficulty is that all of us have to do our part in addressing it, and there’s a lot of stigma, a lot of unspoken bias against those who are unhoused,” she said.
“A lot of folks don’t want to seem like they don’t care, so they will cloak their fear in the language around safety, around zoning, around consultations, but there is fear there. There is fear of those who are unhoused.”
To address any misinformation, the ELSSC is leading a series of workshops, funded with a grant by the City of Toronto, to educate residents about issues related to homelessness.
The program includes three workshops that will be held at the LAMP Community Health Centre at 185 Fifth St., facilitated by local guest speakers and advocates.
The first workshop is on Oct. 9 and will include a discussion about the reality of homelessness in the city, addressing common misconceptions about the unhoused.
“I think the more we can foster dialogue around our fears, the more we can address it [the better]. It’s not an either-or situation to care about the safety of children and seniors and then also care about the safety of those who are unhoused. It’s not an either-or situation, we can figure it out together,” Sison added.