BSA: Warming stations should be open 24/7
This week, we are calling on our councillors, policy-makers, and government to uphold fundamental human rights for unhoused people in Canada and to increase the number of warming centres.
Across Canada, chronically underfunded shelter systems and cold weather mean thousands of unhoused people are out in the cold.
And while municipalities like Vancouver, Edmonton, Montreal, and Toronto have created warming stations, these essential services are not open all winter long, but rather municipal policies determine how cold it has to be for them to open (often from -5°C to -30°C).
But let's be clear: unhoused folk should have access to warm shelter every cold night.
Toronto Councillor Ausma Malik, on the Board of Health, warned that 72% of hypothermia cases for people experiencing homelessness occur when temperatures are above -15°C.
Yet, the city of Toronto's warming centres only open after temperatures reach -15°C or below.
Not to mention Edmonton's warming stations are only activated during extreme weather conditions—often defined as -30°C.
Advocacy groups have warned that we need more warming centres and to have them available 24/7 across our country.
We must ensure that the people capable of making a change that have the budget, power, and ability do so.
Three Steps to Take Action:
Go to our LinkinBio and click 'Bite-Sized Advocacy' (www.oncanadaproject.ca/champion-change)
Click our button to directly email Mayor John Tory, or email your city's mayor by using our template!
Share this post and invite three friends to this week's bite-sized advocacy community challenge.
The growing population of people who are unhoused is a direct result of poor public policy
and a broken social safety net.
There is often a (misplaced) urge to blame the individual, but even those quick to blame the person sitting in the cold must admit that one person is an anomaly; two people could be a coincidence, but 1000s of unhoused people are a policy choice.
Our governments keep under-prioritizing preventative and reactive solutions (that save us money in the long haul) that center our most vulnerable communities, choosing instead to criminalize poverty and invest in the police who not only do not fundamentally address this issue but can cause more harm to the unhoused community.
It's also important to note that warming stations are an important immediate (or reactive) solution, but the actual solution to houselessness is preventative solutions that strengthen our social safety net, including permanent, supported housing solutions.
The Chief Commissioner of CHRC said that failure to ensure the basic need for warm and safe shelter is a "dangerous situation that is predictable, preventable and entirely unacceptable."
This intentional destruction of the social safety net leaves our most vulnerable completely unsupported.
