Grassroots advocacy, charities help secure $212M in federal funding to house asylum seekers

The federal government will provide $212 million in interim funding to house asylum seekers who came to Canada in search of safety and security, but ended up sleeping on sidewalks and streets.

 Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Sean Fraser made the announcement earlier this week, following a Toronto advocacy campaign, led by grassroots community workers, non-profit agencies, charities and allies.

“It just reached a tipping point and they had to respond, because we had gone out there loud and proud … and they couldn’t shirk their responsibilities,” said Diane Walter, executive director of Margaret’s Housing and Community Support Services, a charity that has advocated for asylum seekers in recent weeks.  

The charity is part of a coalition of organizations and community groups that have provided respite for dozens of asylum seekers camped in downtown Toronto, unable to access space in the city’s shelter system. 

In late May, former Toronto deputy mayor Jennifer McKelvie announced the city’s at-capacity shelters would no longer admit additional asylum seekers. McKelvie said asylum seekers would be referred to federal facilities and asked the federal government for $97 million for refugee shelter needs.  

The move left many asylum seekers in limbo. With nowhere to go, they gathered on the sidewalk in front of a city housing referral office only a few blocks away from Toronto’s bustling financial district, where they were exposed to the wind, sun, rain and traffic.

Community pulls together

In early July, community crisis worker Diana Chan McNally and outreach worker Lorraine Lam launched a GoFundMe campaign, raising thousands of dollars used to distribute gift cards, food and other provisions to refugee claimants.

They also did interviews with local and national media outlets. As awareness grew, so too did the list of partner organizations involved in the effort to assist the unhoused asylum seekers; a local church helped with deliveries and a grassroots community organization offered space to store donated items. 

Around the same time, Progress Toronto, a local non-profit advocacy organization, launched a petition calling on the federal government for immediate funding to help house the stranded asylum claimants.  

Less than a week later, a coalition of housing providers, refugee service organizations and frontline workers held a press conference, pressuring all three levels of government to act. 

With local and national media gathered, several Black leaders called for the urgent establishment of reception centres for asylum seekers and for government to remedy the “historical underfunding” of Black-led community organizations, enabling them to provide culturally appropriate, wraparound services to refugees. 

“In response to the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, all orders of government acted quickly to support displaced people,” the coalition said in a press release. “Civil society organizations call on governments to show the same compassion to refugees from other parts of the world.” 

Margaret’s Housing and Community Support Services was one of several charities that participated in the press conference. Though the organization has been providing support for asylum seekers through its drop-in and respite programs, the charity’s executive director said she felt a “moral obligation and an ethical obligation” to speak out publicly as well. 

“I say get out there and be loud and proud,” Walter said.

“Because if we sit back, things will not change and we’re in this world to make this world a better place for everyone.” 

Walter’s charity has also worked behind the scenes, along with several other Black-led organizations, to explore temporary shelter options for those sleeping on sidewalks.

Volunteers with Progress Toronto also canvassed on broader funding issues in the University-Rosedale constituency, which is represented by Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland. Additionally, the grassroots organization Standing Up for Racial Justice organized a “phone zap” where volunteers made more than 100 calls to MPs, Mayor Olivia Chow and several Toronto city councillors, asking for more funding for asylum seekers.

On July 17, a group of Black-led organizations, including Walter’s, arranged for dozens of asylum seekers to be bussed to Revivaltime Tabernacle, a church in North York, where they accessed emergency shelter in the organization’s basement. 

The following day, the federal government announced it would provide $212 million in funding for asylum seeker housing, including $97 million in new funding for the City of Toronto, to offer interim housing for asylum claimants. But Cheryll Case, an urban planner and co-chair of the Black Community Housing Advisory Table, said there was no money earmarked for community groups providing temporary shelter.

Case was part of the intake team receiving asylum seekers at Revivaltime Tabernacle and said the number of people in need was “way beyond” what was anticipated and that additional donations are needed.

“We need support now, so there’s not a moment to waste,” she said.

A tipping point is reached

John Cameron, a Dalhousie University professor who studies charity advocacy, said it’s never clear exactly what triggers politicians to act, but that there were several aspects of the campaign to assist refugee claimants that may have contributed to the release of federal funds.

The first is that the advocacy involved a broad coalition of supporters, including Black-led organizations, immigrant services organizations, refugee rights organizations and diaspora community organizations. Cameron said these groups sometimes work “in silos” but came together on this issue, offering a unified voice, which may have contributed to the federal government feeling more pressure to act. 

Community organizations were also savvy and strategic, offering the government a clear problem and clear solutions, Cameron said.

“There’s lots of evidence that effective advocacy is SMART: specific, manageable, achievable, realistic and time bound.” 

Political calculations may have played a role, too, he said. At the federal level, the minority Liberal government may have made this announcement while consciously considering voters belonging to diaspora communities in key swing ridings, Cameron said. 

“The high profile parts of this story make it appear that it played out over a very short period of time — there was a press conference on Friday and then there was an announcement on Tuesday,” he said. “But I suspect there’s a much longer process behind this.” 

Case said the Black Community Housing Advisory Table has been collaborating for over two years on the need for the government to address housing insecurity for Black people. 

“The advocacy, what you’ve seen, has surely generated action. But I think people have always been advocating, whether loudly or in a very nuanced fashion,” said Walter. “I think it’s just reached a tipping point.” 

Advocacy critical to success

As of this Wednesday, more than 1,000 people have donated to the GoFundMe campaign, offering nearly $70,000 in support. Additionally, Mohamad Fakih of Paramount Fine Foods has promised to donate $20,000 towards the cost of temporary housing.

At least one institutional funder has also offered support. The Black Opportunity Fund, a national Black-led foundation, is providing “immediate funding” for Margaret’s Housing and Community Support Services to support its trauma-informed intake program at Revivaltime Tabernacle.

The foundation’s executive director, Craig Wellington, said the Black Opportunity Fund has also engaged in advocacy on the issue as a member of Black Community Housing Advisory Table.

 Pairing advocacy work with funding is “absolutely critical,” he said. When Black communities are being subjugated, funders that say they support social and economic empowerment must raise their voices, Wellington said. 

While many Canadian foundations do not engage in advocacy or fund it, he said this kind of action is also core to Black Opportunity Fund’s DNA. 

“There’s this really colonial, rigid, systemically racist system of philanthropy. And [when we set up the Black Opportunity Fund] we said we’re not going to come in and do the exact same thing, and set up the exact same processes, and just do it with a Black face,” Wellington said. 

Tell us this made you smarter | Contact us | Report error