20 Milner Business Court

Location: 20 Milner Business Court
Shelter residents: Women
Number of rooms: 100 (with possibility of up to 146 rooms)
Opened: May 2021

Service operator: City of Toronto

As part of the City’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the need for physical distancing in the shelter system, 20 Milner Business Court, in Scarborough North (Ward 23), has been leased by the City of Toronto to act as an emergency support, temporary shelter hotel.

Learn more about the City’s plan for homelessness services as part of the response to COVID-19.

Virtual Information Session

Thank you to everyone who participated in and watched the 20 Milner Business Court Information Session on May 13, 2021.

Meeting recording in English (with closed captioning)
Meeting recording in Mandarin (Please see transcript for virtual information session in Traditional Chinese).
Meeting recording in Cantonese (Please note that due to technical difficulties, the recording is in English for the first 16 minutes of the video. The recording is in Cantonese for the remainder of the video. Please see transcript for virtual information session text in Traditional Chinese).
Meeting summary
Presentation slide deck

Site Operations

Starting the week of May 17, 20 Milner Business Crt., has been used to relocate a City-operated women’s shelter program that opened at 2685 Kingston Rd. in Spring 2020 as part of the response to COVID-19. The City is committing to 100 rooms, but it could be increased to 146 rooms as needed. The City’s lease at 2685 Kingston Rd. ended on May 31, 2021.

Wrap-Around Supports

The program at 20 Milner Business Crt. is delivered directly by the Shelter, Support & Housing Administration division at the City of Toronto. The shelter provides counselling and supportive programming. Many wrap-around supports are provided for clients at 20 Milner Business Crt., including:

City staff available on-site to support residents 24/7
all meals provided onsite and catered by a local business
recreational and social engagement programming offered onsite
community partners that support physical and mental health needs of vulnerable persons have been approached to provide services to the women at the new location
a relationship with the Scarborough Health Network is in place for vaccination and exploring how other health services can be put in place to support residents
on-site services are not available on a drop-in basis, they are for program residents only and all recommended and all public health measures are being implemented

Community Engagement

The City typically engages the community in advance of opening a new shelter to provide information about the program and support its successful integration into the community. This has not been possible for many of the temporary sites due to the speed at which the City has had to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The City must work quickly to save lives, protect the most vulnerable, and minimize the spread of COVID-19 in shelters and the community. The City hired a community engagement team who gathered input from the community and sharing information about temporary shelter program at 20 Milner Business Crt.

The community engagement plan included:

reviewing and responding to feedback on key issues from the community
project updates and outreach as required
virtual stakeholder meetings for representatives of local resident associations, businesses, institutions and community groups
an information session on May 13, 2021 from 7 to 9 p.m. There were presentations by City staff and a time for questions. Simultaneous interpretation in Cantonese and Mandarin was provided

Because of physical distancing restrictions, all engagement activities took place online and over the phone rather than in person.