The city is taking extra steps to ensure the safety of students who attend schools near a temporary shelter in midtown Toronto that has been the site of several violent incidents this summer.
The city opened the 109-unit facility at the old Roehampton hotel near Yonge Street and Eglinton Avenue in July as part of a wider effort to reduce crowding in the shelter system during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since then the shelter and another temporary facility nearby that the city ceased to operate as of Sept. 1 have been the site of several violent incidents, including the stabbing of a client on Aug. 22.
Those incidents have unnerved some residents and have led to a number of protests in the neighbourhood, both from those who oppose the location of the shelter and those who support it.
Last month Mayor John Tory and the city councillor for the area, Josh Matlow, asked city staff to step up security in the surrounding neighbourhood and develop a school safety plan that would directly address the community concerns regarding the half a dozen schools that are located in the immediate vicinity of the shelter.
It calls for the community safety teams that are already patrolling the neighbourhood on a 24/7 basis to have a visible presence at nearby schools at the beginning and end of the day for at least the first two weeks of classes, at which point the need for their presence will be “reviewed.” As well, those teams will be on-call and responsible for responding to the schools at other times.
Meanwhile, mobile security teams under contract with the city will be asked to regularly check on school properties and patrol “high traffic student routes during times students come to and from school,” particularly those around the Yonge Street and Mt. Pleasant Road area and near Eglinton Station.
The city has also commuted to dispatching a facilities management team to all six TDSB schools near the shelter each weekday morning to pick up discarded needles and other dangerous refuse.
Those teams, the plan notes, will be expected to conclude their work at least a 30 minutes before classes start.
“The safety plan is meant to be a living document and be flexible to feedback from the community and in response to any safety issues that may arise,” a news release issued by the city on Friday afternoon states. “The city is committed to continue meeting with school representatives as the plan is implemented.”
The city has already taken a number of other steps to improve safety in the neighbourhood surrounding the shelter, including committing to regular visits by the Toronto Police Services’ Community Response Unit and posting four security guards in the immediate area on a 24-7 basis.
The Roehampton hotel site is eventually slated for redevelopment but has been leased for two years by the city to serve as a temporary shelter sites.
