Some Canadian cities including Ottawa brace for refugee influx with temporary housing facilities

A significant increase in the number of refugees and asylum seekers in Canada has prompted some cities to start building temporary housing for new arrivals.

The city of Ottawa is working to establish what's known as a sprung structure that serves as both a temporary shelter and a centre to provide settlement services such as language training and employment assistance. 

These centres are meant to house refugees only for their first few weeks in the city before they move on to more suitable housing in Ottawa's settlement infrastructure. 

The city has identified two potential locations for these centres, both in the city's west end. Planning documents describe them as "modular tension fabric buildings."

The planned locations for these structures have been a point of tension in the affected neighbourhoods. The city's first proposed location was cancelled following significant resident pushback. It then came up with two new options, and rallies were held in both spots last weekend both for and against the idea of putting the structures there.

Many residents complained they were not adequately consulted on the location. 

One of the planned spots is a parcel of land owned by the federal government near the Nepean Sportsplex, which serves about 1.5 million people annually, according to city data. The other is near a public transit park and ride lot in the western suburb of Kanata.

City Councillor Sean Devine, whose ward includes the sportsplex site, said residents have a lot to say about the issue.

"A lot of it is coming from the fact that it would have been preferable if the city of Ottawa had communicated the information sooner, perhaps in advance of the recommendations," he said in an interview.

Devine said Ottawa has seen a spike in the amount of refugees coming to the capital in the last two years. This aligns with national trends in both refugee and asylum seeker rates. 

Canada had nearly 250,000 refugee claims in the queue as of Sept. 30, 2024 and had approved more than 33,000 claims between January and the end of September.

In all of 2023, Canada accepted 37,000 refugee claims, and in 2022, it accepted 28,000.

Devine said the city has been using two community centre gymnasiums filled with bunk beds to help temporarily house some claimants before they go on to other types of housing. 

The Ottawa Mission said in a statement published in September that it began to notice a significant increase to the number of refugees occupying its shelter beds in the summer of 2023. By that October, 61 per cent of the beds were being used by refugees, an all-time high.

The new structures will be funded through the federal interim housing assistance program, through which municipalities and provinces can bill the feds for costs incurred for temporarily housing asylum claimants.

Just over $1 billion has been distributed since 2017, primarily in Ontario and Quebec, with the city of Ottawa receiving $105 million so far. 

Families, Children and Social Development Minister Jenna Sudds, who represents the Ottawa riding of Kanata-Nepean, said she is disappointed with how the plans have been communicated with residents.

After the city announced the two new chosen locations, Sudds said she has been talking with constituents and city officials because one of the proposed locations is in her riding. 

"Frankly what I'm hearing is a lot of frustration that they are just learning about this without the opportunity to be consulted or provide input. And also hearing a lot of fear, frankly, and I think that is stemming from a void of information," Sudds said. 

With the planned opening for these welcome centres about a year away, Sudds also questions the use of a sprung structure, instead wanting to see a facility that can offer a more "dignified" start in Ottawa. 

"We're a city of a million people. We have always welcomed newcomers to our city using different ways and methods, and I think we need to put the challenge out to our city, to the people who live in this city on how we accommodate and set these folks up for success because I have no doubt that we would get some fabulous suggestions," Sudds said. 

This response from Sudds caught Devine by surprise, as he said the city is working "hand-in-hand" with the federal government on these plans.

"The city of Ottawa is working resolutely to implement effective solutions to an urgent crisis in a timely matter, and the best thing that our federal partners can do is provide the resources and support we need," he said. 

Louisa Taylor, executive director of settlement service organization 613 Refugee, has been working with the city in co-ordinating resources for settlement services at the future centres. She said she's "cautiously excited" about the plans. 

"The excitement is that they are trying to create a formal pathway for refugee claimants into housing and into accessing services from the moment that they arrive in our city. Very few, if any, other Canadian cities have this," she said.

Taylor said the high number of refugees in an Ottawa homeless shelter is what spurred her and 613 Refugee to organize a recent rally in support of the structure.

"For several years now, hundreds of refugee claimants have been living, sleeping on bunk beds and cots in community centres and arenas in different parts of the city. No one has been out protesting about that. What they're protesting is the idea of having a facility in their community that they don't know enough about," she said.

The Peel region in the Greater Toronto Area opened a similar facility earlier this month to address the same issues. 

Mississauga Councillor Natalie Hart, whose ward hosts the reception centre near Pearson Airport, said the region needed to open a dedicated facility for refugees and asylum seekers to ease the pressure on other social services. 

Hart said the Peel region and Toronto have seen a "sharp increase" in refugees coming to the GTA since spring 2023. 

"It's been pretty much unprecedented, far exceeding the norm that we've normally had in Peel. They're coming from African countries who have fled their homes at a fear of persecution and death and these asylum claimants are arriving with very minimal resources," she said. 

The Mississauga centre is based in a former four-storey office park, which the Peel region signed a 10-year-lease on earlier this year to act as a refugee reception centre. 

The first floor is currently the only one that's open, and Hart said it now has 88 beds. Construction is nearing completion on the remainder of the building, and is expected to be fully open early next year. 

She said the location in a light industrial area was chosen due to its proximity to transit and other services like employment agencies. 

The Ottawa city planning document references similar sprung structures being used in California and Oregon. They are not entirely new to Ottawa either, as the Ottawa Hospital currently uses a sprung structure to accommodate overflow with their emergency response centre. 

"If in a few years there is no longer a need then they could be repurposed to fill some other need. They could be relocated to serve a different kind of recreational need somewhere else," Devine said. 

"But knowing that we can't predict the future, we better damn well prepare for the present. I think getting some kind of manageable, effective solution in places is a responsibility that all levels of government have to address."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 19, 2024