The city will open a new permanent shelter in the Annex later this year, Coun. Joe Cressy said Thursday, despite mixed reaction from community residents.

Cressy (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina) unveiled plans for the facility at 348 Davenport Rd., near Dupont Street and Avenue Road, Thursday alongside Annex residents who support the project.

The city purchased the building a few months ago, Cressy said, with the intention of relieving the shelter bed crunch that's been exacerbated by a string of cold snaps.

While the building needs some renovations and will open permanently later this year, it will open this weekend for a short-term stint as a respite facility until mid-April, Cressy told CBC Radio's Metro Morning.

"We know that we have an urgent situation right now," Cressy said.

The city needs more than 1,000 permanent shelter beds, he said, and this new facility will have 90 beds.

"We as a city need to get our act together to open another 12 to 15 of these," he said.

City staff have yet to decide whether the permanent facility will serve families, women or refugees, for whom all shelters are at capacity, Cressy said.

'It all ends up in our backyard'

The city is forging ahead with the plan with the support of one community association and opposition from another.

A statement to Cressy from the Davenport Triangle Residents Association making the rounds on Twitter expressed disappointment that the community was not consulted about the shelter.

"Our general objection is that The Annex has more than its share of 'social problem' housing and it is time for the rest of the city to share the burden," the statement said.

"This seems to be a particular interest of yours, more than other councillors, so it all ends up in our backyard, strangely without objection from ARA or Annex residents."

On Thursday, Cressy called the comments "heartbreaking" because "people are not problems."

He noted that his father ran a group home, and used to tell him that people like shelters "and they like them more the further they are away from them."

'The responsibility of everyone'

While the facility has received mixed reaction, Mayor John Tory promised "it will be part of the community."

"I have made it clear that I believe we need more places in our city to help our homeless find shelter — this is the right thing to do," Tory said in a statement. 

"Working to ensure these locations are located seamlessly in communities, and are part of their communities, is a collective effort which requires the cooperation and the sensitivity of every single Torontonian just as it is the responsibility of everyone to fight homelessness."

This facility will be the fourth shelter he has opened in his ward, Cressy said. Some have been met with warm community support, while others have not.

But ultimately, building shelters "does not require consultation, nor should it," he said. "If we required community consent to open shelters, we would have no shelters."

Members of the Annex Residents Association will be on hand for the announcement in a show of support for the shelter, Cressy said.

Communities 'ought' to be mixed

Earlier this month, the city revealed that shelters were at 95 per cent capacity, with hundreds more people using winter respite stations. With a number of days-long cold snaps and extreme cold weather alerts already this winter, activists have been pressuring the city to develop more permanent resources for the city's homeless population.

In December, the Better Living Centre was opened as an emergency respite centre, as was the Moss Park Armoury two weeks ago. This week, anti-poverty activists marched on city hall demanding that 1,500 more shelter beds be created.

On Tuesday, the city approved increasing the Shelter Support and Housing Administration's budget by $21.8 million in 2018. This is slated to go toward opening more permanent shelters and the funding is set to step up in the coming three years as the city works toward a goal of opening 1,000 new spaces. 

In the meantime, Cressy said the city's capital budget contains funds to purchase buildings and develop new shelter facilities. The problem is finding real estate that isn't being bought up by developers for condos.

"We need housing," Cressy said.

"But unless we as a city proactively also purchase and build shelters, not only will there not be space, but our communities will not become inclusive and mixed communities, which they ought to be."