As Toronto braces for another cold stretch, the City is opening its five warming centres on Monday evening for those who need to warm up or need access to a washroom.
Warming centres also provide resting spaces, meals and referrals to emergency shelters.
As a general rule of thumb, the City opens warming centres when temperatures dip down to -5 C or when Environment and Climate Change Canada issues a winter weather event warning.
Monday will see a low of -3 C towards the evening and into the overnight hours, along with wet snow. Tuesday is expected to be the coldest day of the week with a high of 2 C and a low of -5 C.
“Warming Centres are pet-friendly and focus on getting and keeping vulnerable residents inside,” reads the City’s website.
Walk-ins are welcome at all warming centres and no prior referral is required. If a warming centre is at capacity the City will help with transportation to another centre if space is available.
Once they open, warming centres remain open 24 hours a day until the City decides to close them based on weather conditions.
“Once a Warming Centre closes to new admissions, staff work to refer individuals who remain onsite to alternate spaces in the shelter system,” says the City’s website.
Warming centres open on 5 p.m. Monday.
Warming centre locations:
81 Elizabeth Street
349 George Street
885 Scarborough Golf Club Road
12 Holmes Avenue
136 Spadina Road