07/28/2025
This deputation by Maytree's Elizabeth McIsaac, was made to City of Toronto's Economic and Community Development Committee meeting on July 9, 2025, supporting approval of the 2024 Street Needs Assessment and the City’s Shelter Infrastructure.
Good morning,
My name is Elizabeth McIsaac, and I am the President of Maytree, an organization dedicated to advancing systemic solutions to poverty through a human rights-based approach. I also serve as the Chair of the Housing Rights Advisory Committee, which helps to further the progressive realization of the right to adequate housing in Toronto.
I am here to express my strong support for the Toronto Shelter and Support Services’ Homelessness Services Capital Infrastructure Strategy and related plans to improve and develop more shelters and housing options across the city.
As has been documented by the the Street Needs Assessment, we have an urgent housing crisis across the city with groups that continue to be overrepresented, including Indigenous, racialized, and 2SLGBTQ+ communities. Refugees also made up many of those using shelter services.
As we talk about the housing crisis in our country, this is it. It’s those who are unhoused, unsheltered.
But the crisis is not simply about housing. As noted in the report from the City, it reflects deeper systemic failures that prevent people from living a life with dignity.
At Maytree, we’ve documented how stagnant social assistance rates, inadequate housing benefits, rising rents, and underinvestment in adequate affordable housing have eroded progress toward realizing everyone’s right to adequate housing. Having an adequate home – one that is safe, affordable, and meets basic needs – is not a nice-to-have, but a fundamental human right the City has committed to in upholding its Housing Charter.
Reaching a state of adequate housing for all takes time, which is why this right is subject to the principle of progressive realization. This means the City is required to devote the maximum available resources to making progressive steps toward realizing this right, recognizing that such a complex challenge can’t be addressed by one solution or one government alone.
Addressing the urgency of a homelessness crisis, however, like the one that we have is a bit different. Under international human rights law, it is what is called a “minimum core obligation” of governments. This means that shelter, though it is far from adequate housing, must be offered immediately and without exception to everyone. The concept of progressive realization does not apply. It is immediate. It is urgent. And it is fundamental.
In the long term, we know that permanent, affordable, and supportive housing is what will help people realize their right to adequate housing. But the reality is that the over 15,000 people are experiencing homelessness in Toronto, and they need basic shelter today.
It’s in this spirit that I support the City’s efforts to improve and expand the emergency shelter system across the city – as people are experiencing homelessness across the city in every neighbourhood. These shelters are often the only housing option available for many people experiencing homelessness, and current demand exceeds their existing capacity.
In particular, we support the City’s goal of replacing temporary hotel sites with permanent, purpose-built shelters, planning for shelters to be converted into supportive housing over time, and exploring other innovative approaches, such as micro-shelters.
We also need to be clear: Everyone has the right to adequate housing, including refugees. If systems are strained, it’s because we haven’t resourced them properly – not because one group is taking from another.
In closing, I want to reaffirm my strong support for Toronto Shelter and Support Services’ shelter infrastructure plan. The shelter system is a critical way that people who are experiencing homelessness can begin to claim their right to housing and should be improved so that it is dignity-focused, accessible, sustainable, and supports the transition to long-term housing. We also ask that this work continues with genuine engagement with people with lived experience of homelessness.
Together with the HousingTO 2020-2030 Action Plan, these efforts will help make the right to housing a reality for everyone in Toronto.
Thank you
At the July 9 meeting of Toronto’s Economic and Community Development Committee, Maytree President Elizabeth McIsaac expressed strong support for the City’s ...
