In 2023, Pilgrim Feast Tabernacles, a Toronto faith centre, opened its doors to asylum seekers. It’s among many organizations struggling to accommodate the surge of refugees in the city.how old she is. She thinks she’s probably 40 or 41, but she became separated from her parents as a child, and she has no record of her birth.
Ann suffered panic attacks, waking in the middle of the night gasping for air, thinking she might be having a heart attack. She thought about leaving Canada. Whatever awaited her if she did—even the murderous rage of her husband—couldn’t be worse than this new life in Canada. Other residents wondered if they would be safer sleeping outside, on the wintry streets; Jjumba had to convince some women to stay at the shelter.
The second factor is the steep rise in the cost of living across Canada, which has devastated that support system. The Canadian government does not guarantee housing for asylum seekers. When refugee claimants arrive, their housing needs are often served by a patchwork of not-for-profits, community organizations, faith groups and other organizations that help newcomers. But many of those have been pushed to the brink by soaring rents and other costs.
Jodi Block is the community engagement manager at Jewish Immigrant Aid Services, a group that has, in partnership with private sponsors, helped bring 870 refugees to Canada since 2015. She says that the amount the Canadian government requires to sponsor a refugee—about $19,000 for one adult per year—is profoundly unrealistic, not even covering rent in the Greater Toronto Area. Block’s organization has created a new position solely devoted to supporting the housing needs of newcomers.
Nkambwe soon realized there were many queer Africans fleeing danger, but arriving in a country that couldn’t guarantee a warm bed. With funds from a cleaning job she’d found, she started AFCROC. It operates on a shoestring budget; Nkambwe’s studio apartment doubles as its headquarters.
Kizito Musabimana came to Canada in 2000. He can’t imagine a refugee today finding a way into Canadian life as easily as he did. Last year, city hall decided to play hardball with Ottawa: unless the federal government boosted funding for newcomer services to the city, Toronto would levy a six per cent “federal impacts” tax on city residents. Liberal MPs were furious about the gambit, saying Ottawa had already been generous with the city. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland had already insisted that it was the province that was responsible for ponying up more cash.
Source: Holiday News (holidaynews.net)
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