The City of Toronto is in the process of establishing a segregated homeless shelter only for black Canadians in an effort to “confront anti-black racism.”
City staff are giving “black-mandated” nonprofit organizations until May 30 to apply to operate a homeless shelter for black Torontonians.
These “black mandated” or “B3” organizations are defined as having a majority of paid staff and board members who identify as black, an organization whose mandate explicitly seeks to serve black communities, and whose organization primarily services black people.
Nonprofits with no experience running a homeless shelter are welcome to apply, merely having to demonstrate to the city that the organization has experience serving homeless black people. However, applicant organizations are evaluated based on their capacity to operate a homeless shelter for Black people, including possible past experience operating a shelter.
The city requires the successful applicant to provide a number of “culturally appropriate” services to shelter clients. These supports include culturally appropriate hygiene products, culturally appropriate food and nutrition, culturally safe spaces, and culturally appropriate healthcare.
The successful applicant is also required to work from “trauma-informed and equity-focused lenses” in providing services to clients.
The city will hold the shelter’s operators to certain quality standards: requiring the facility to operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, maintain a 1:20 staff-to-client ratio, provide free Wi-Fi access for staff and clients, and include an outdoor space for pets and service animals.
While the shelter is slated to serve those who self-identify as black—referring to black Canadians, African Canadians, and people of African descent—it is unclear whether the shelter would be willing to accept homeless people who are not black or cast them aside.
Once a location for the shelter is secured, the facility will be scheduled to open within three to five years and accommodate between 70-100 homeless clients.
True North reached out to the City of Toronto for comment, though no response was given.
A similar program was established to create a homeless shelter exclusively for Indigenous people, whose application process closed in January. The Indigenous stream is markedly similar to the B3 stream, seeking to build a similarly sized shelter.