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Shelter Beds: Spots and Shower Facilities

shelter beds: These are spots that are real and that will bring people in from the winter cold, Councillor Joe Mihevc, standing alongside Mayor John Tory, told reporters at a morning news conference, according to Toronto Star. They are for most part not full shelter beds but do address in the very short term, for this winter, the crisis of overflowing drop-ins and shelter facilities. Part of city council's response to an alarming surge in Torontonians with nowhere to live, many of them refugees, the Better Living Centre will open with spots for 20 people their choice of cots or mats, with shower facilities and expand to 100 spots by mid-January, city officials said Thursday. City council heard this month that city shelters are at 95-per-cent capacity, above the 90-per-cent mandated maximum. Article Continued Below Council voted to find 400 new shelter and respite spaces either within existing shelters, or in other city-owned sites, or in motels already hosting overflow residents including many refugee families on top of a staff-recommended increase, and work to find sites for three new permanent shelters. The bed shortage, driven by refugees arriving in Toronto, soaring rents and almost no vacancy, comes as homeless Torontonians die, most never reaching age 50. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.