Man in his 50s, resident of downtown shelter, dies in hospital as activists decry city’s response to crisis

A worker from Sanctuary, a Christian charitable organization, tends to homeless people in their tents during the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto on April 28, 2020.
Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
The first homeless person in Toronto to die of COVID-19 was a man in his 50s who had been living in a downtown city shelter, the citys medical officer of health said Monday, as the number of people living on the streets and testing positive for the disease continues to grow.
Its believed to be just the second confirmed death of a homeless person linked to the virus in a major city in Canada, after an elderly homeless man died after testing positive for COVID-19 in Montreal in March.
Medical Officer of Health Eileen de Villa said the Toronto man died in hospital on Friday, and was a resident at the Dixon Hall School House shelter on the east side of the citys core. An outbreak at the shelter, in which three people had tested positive, had been declared resolved last Tuesday.
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On behalf of my team, I extend sincerest condolences to this individuals friends and family and to all others who have lost loved ones to COVID-19, Dr. de Villa said.
Dr. de Villa said all residents of the shelter had been tested and that the public-health department had ensured that enhanced cleaning and infection-control measures along with physical distancing and self-isolation spaces had been put in place. Like at all city shelters, residents are screened for symptoms before being admitted.
Toronto said that as of Friday, 283 people from its shelter system had tested positive for COVID-19, with 258 active cases and current outbreaks in 10 of its 63 facilities, most of which are operated by non-profit agencies such as Dixon Hall Neighbourhood Services. One shelter for refugees alone has seen 164 cases.
The city has opened about 400 new, more physically spread out spaces in community centres and moved more than 1,000 homeless people into hotel rooms to allow for increased physical distancing in its crowded shelter system, which houses about 7,000 men, women and children each night. It has also opened a recovery centre in a hotel for homeless people who have tested positive.
For weeks, advocates for the homeless have said the city was moving too slowly to stop the virus from spreading in its shelters, which have been bursting at the seams for years.
Long-time activist and street nurse Cathy Crowe says testing in shelters is not happening fast enough and neither is the tracing of those who have had contact with positive cases. She also said the city should be moving more homeless into hotels. Citing the growing number of homeless people testing positive, she warned this could be a tipping point week for the virus.
It just feels chaotic, Ms. Crowe said. I think this is going to be a rough week.
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