Toronto adds 1,533 winter shelter and housing spaces

Toronto will open up to 1,533 additional shelter and housing spaces between Nov. 15 and April 15, 2027, under its annual winter plan for people experiencing homelessness, the city said Monday.

The city said the total is 18 per cent more than last year. About 505 of the spaces are new shelter and 24-hour winter respite beds. Another 254 are Warming Centre spaces at five sites, activated when temperatures hit -5 C or during a winter weather event warning. Roughly 186 surge spaces will open when temperatures reach -15 C.

Extra street outreach teams will go out during extreme cold to encourage people to come indoors, and several daytime drop-ins will extend their hours, adding 252 hours of service a week. The drop-ins provide food, health care, showers and laundry.

The release also gave the city’s latest counts. Toronto is housing nearly 7,000 people a night, down from 9,000 last year, and the number of encampments has fallen by about 67 per cent, from more than 353 in October 2025 to about 118 this October. Since Jan. 1, Streets to Homes has made 461 shelter referrals from encampment sites, and more than 4,158 people moved from shelters into permanent housing in the past year.

The city cited a Financial Accountability Office of Ontario report that found homelessness across Ontario rose 17.9 per cent between 2022 and 2025, while it fell 8.2 per cent in Toronto. The city still described Toronto as being in a homelessness emergency, driven by unaffordable housing, insufficient income supports and unmet health needs.

Work is also under way on 1,600 long-term shelter spaces through the city’s Homelessness Services Capital Infrastructure Strategy. The city warned that without stable funding agreements among all three orders of government, that momentum is at risk.

Full details are on the city’s Winter Services Plan page, and the announcement is in the City of Toronto news release.

Last winter’s plan was criticized by advocates who said it would not keep everyone warm. Our earlier reporting looked at how activists and experts view Toronto’s encampment approach, and we reported this week that Montreal will open winter trailers at its largest encampment.

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