Ottawa’s homeless shelters are struggling to keep up with demand as the rise of newcomers puts pressure on the already overburdened system.
The Ottawa Mission is seeing many newcomers looking for shelter and they now account for nearly 40 per cent of its clients, according to its CEO
“We’re easily at about 115 to 120 per cent [capacity] per night, and those people have to be fed three meals a day,” said Peter Tilley.
“Don’t forget, we’re also turning away another 60 to 70 people per night who when they arrive, half of whom are newcomers,”
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Apparently a woman who just came to Canada died after waiting for hours outside a shelter in Mississauga.
She’d been in Canada for three days at that point, so I guess she spent some time in a federal facility.
It seems fucked up that someone who just arrived in the country and doesn’t have a support network, just ends up homeless by default.