It took close to two years, considerable media coverage and many emails to the mayor’s office but the controversial Novotel shelter is finally closing at the end of the year.
The 254-room hotel on The Esplanade – one of three Silver Hotel group properties rented out by the organization – was fraught with controversy from the moment it opened with no advance warning to the surrounding neighbourhood in late February 2021.
Two others – the Strathcona Hotel and Hotel Victoria – are within 800 metres of the Novotel. Their leases will be extended until April 2023.
The Novotel shelter – which permitted residents to take hard drugs on-site – wreaked havoc on the surrounding neighbourhood.
Monthly reports were sent to Mayor John Tory’s office detailing vandalism, aggressive behaviour by the shelter’s residents (many addicted to hard drugs), constant screaming, arson, public urination and defecation, dog fights in the back alley, weapons possession, the presence of EMS vehicles day and night and the appearance of drug dealers who preyed on the shelter’s residents.
Store windows were repeatedly broken and petty theft was rampant.
Police struggled to keep up with the increased crime and many of the shelter’s neighbours became wary of venturing out at night.
Politicians ignored the concern as did the bureaucrats. An 86-page report with a 1,200-name petition, photos and anecdotes was also completely ignored.
In the spring, Toronto police made one of its largest drug busts involving $28.5-miilion worth of crystal meth and coke in the condo directly beside the Novotel shelter.
The shelter operator, Homes First, had no curfew and appeared to struggle to manage its population of largely drug-addicted and mentally ill residents.
The lease with the Silver Hotel Group indicated that the contract was to last 10 months only until Dec. 2021 at a cost of $8.1-million if all 254 rooms were used.
Each room was to be rented at $100 per day not including $30 per day per client for meals and snacks.
The lease was extended twice and when all was said and done, this temporary stopgap measure is likely to cost taxpayers close to $20-million.
But that’s not all.
The city’s contract with Silver Hotel Group says once Homes First and the residents move at the end of the year, the city has agreed to pay the costs of deep cleaning and restoring the hotel.
Those costs could be astronomical considering the pictures that have surfaced showing how rooms have been ransacked and ruined.
In June the city’s Auditor General released an audit of the hotel shelter program which showed negligent city officials paid out $15-million extra for charges not covered by the hotel leases, for vacant rooms and various “facility surcharges” on meals.
I’m betting the city will never recover the money.
The Downtown Concerned Citizens Organization (DCCO) which formed after three hotel shelters were thrust on an unsuspecting community, issued a statement indicating they are “relieved” with the impending closure of the Novotel.
They say the homeless hotel caused a “war zone of crime and carnage” on The Esplanade.
