Originally “temporary”, the accommodation of asylum seekers in hotels at state expense continues. If Ottawa assures that it will not abandon them, several community stakeholders feel “fatigue” from the federal government, making them question the future of the program.
Between 1er April 2023 and February 29, 2024, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) spent “more than $426 million for the temporary accommodation of asylum seekers,” the ministry said in Duty. “This includes expenses for accommodation, meals, security, service providers and transportation. »
More than 17,000 asylum seekers were thus accommodated in 2023, “in hotels in British Columbia (Vancouver), New Brunswick (Moncton and Fredericton), Newfoundland and Labrador (St. John’s) , Nova Scotia (Halifax), Ontario (Cornwall, Niagara Falls, Kingston, Mississauga, Ottawa and Windsor) and Quebec (Montreal).”
But last week, The duty reported that, for the first time, more than a hundred asylum seekers housed in Niagara Falls were pushed out the door, forced to find housing by mid-April. “IRCC’s temporary accommodation sites have always been intended as a temporary solution to alleviate pressure on the provincial shelter system due to high volumes of asylum seekers,” explained IRCC.
All the people concerned have also obtained the status of “protected person”, according to IRCC. The number of evictions could also increase if new people receive this status and no longer “meet the eligibility criteria for temporary accommodation in our sites,” the ministry wrote.
Avoiding the “humanitarian crisis”
“The government is tired. He is tired because he didn’t see anything coming,” said Olayinka Animashaun. Arriving in Canada in 2015, after fleeing domestic violence in Nigeria, she thinks that Ottawa did not expect to have to manage this situation for so long.
Three other sources involved at various levels in the reception of asylum seekers in different Ontario cities also told the Dutyon condition of anonymity, of their questions about the future of the program, some understanding that the government wants to “free up the rooms”.
In an email, the ministry writes that “work is underway to find a longer-term solution to meet the housing needs of asylum seekers.” But “given the pressures local shelters are currently experiencing, the Government of Canada is supporting provinces and municipalities in providing temporary housing to asylum seekers.”
“I don’t think the ministry is going to close the hotels tomorrow morning,” he told Duty Bonaventure Otshudi, director of newcomer services at the Hamilton/Niagara Community Health Centre, recalling that just a few weeks ago, an asylum seeker died in Toronto after waiting to enter a shelter in the cold .
The one who has meetings every two weeks with IRCC, however, concedes that “no one can clearly say if [le financement d’Ottawa va prendre fin] tomorrow morning, in six months or in a year.” “It will go gradually,” he said, referring to the evictions planned for April. But in the event of a complete halt to the accommodation program, “it would be a humanitarian crisis,” he warns. He fears, like the pastor of a church in Niagara Falls, Wally Hong, that funding could be jeopardized in the event of a change of government.
For Kelsey Santarossa, director of community and workforce development at Workforce WindsorEssex, ending hotel accommodation “would be a good thing” if asylum seekers “are supported, become permanent residents, [trouvent] affordable housing and become members of the community,” she said, insisting that the measure is “temporary.”
This report is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.