Two weeks after the City of Toronto said it would begin referring refugee claimants seeking beds in its at-capacity shelter system to federal programs, asylum seekers who recently arrived in Canada are struggling to find places to sleep.
Birck Teklau arrived in Toronto from Ethiopia on June 3 hoping to claim asylum because, he says, of political persecution in his home country.
The 34-year-old says he’s been sleeping on the streets ever since — after being turned away from the city’s shelter system day after day.
“I tried many times…. They say that we don’t have [a] place,” Teklau said in an interview. “I never expected this from Canada.”
And he’s not alone.
Teklau was
