City of London missed application deadline for federal reimbursement of shelter costs for asylum claimants

An undated image of London city hall. (Daryl Newcombe/CTV News London)

Efforts at city hall to get reimbursed by the federal government for costs incurred by asylum seekers might be too late.

On Wednesday, city staff reported 11.9 per cent of emergency shelter beds have been occupied by asylum claimants, costing the emergency homeless shelter system more than $1 million over the 11-month period, dating back to May.

However, MP Peter Fragiskatos said the city missed the deadline to apply for reimbursement of eligible costs from the federal government’s Interim Housing Assistance Program (IHAP).

"The unfortunate thing here is that the window for applying for that funding has come to a close,” Fragiskatos told CTV News. “What‘s very unfortunate is that city administration and colleagues on [council] had an opportunity to raise this issue during the early stages, I'm talking months ago, when this was first brought up in the fall."

He added that other municipalities and service providers already applied to be reimbursed.

In an emailed statement to CTV News on Wednesday, civic administration explained that their staff already have council direction to apply for IHAP funds, and that direction came from council in November when the impacts of asylum claimants on the local shelter system was first discussed.

On November 28, council passed a motion directing staff to:

• Report back to Council on the impacts of asylum claimants on our local shelter system. Based on the findings from the staff report, that staff apply, if appropriate, for Interim Housing Assistance Program (IHAP) funding, if necessary, to address the impacts on local shelters.

Between May 1, 2023 and March 31, 2024, there were 123 individual asylum claimants who spent a total of 11,073 nights in emergency shelter beds— 11.9 per cent of the city’s capacity.

At an average cost of $96.66/night, shelter costs have exceeded $1 million.

An additional $31,500 has been spent on hotel/motel rooms for families waiting for space to become available at Rotholme family shelter.

The actual number of asylum seekers in shelters is likely even higher.

The report acknowledges limitations in the data because some people may not disclose their personal information and others may be accessing shelters that do not utilize the database.

Fragiskatos said while some other communities face a much higher percentage of asylum claimants in their emergency shelters, the 12 per cent in London is “not insignificant.”

He added that despite the communications gap, he’ll try to secure federal funds to reimburse eligible costs.

"We need to see the numbers, we needed to see those a long time ago, but I'm glad to work with the City of London,” Fragiskatos said. “Anyone in the city who wants to share that information, I can communicate that with Immigration [officials] in Ottawa and we can move from there."

Council’s Community and Protective Services Committee will consider the report detailing asylum claimants in emergency shelters during a meeting April 29.