February 4, 2013
The last week has been a trying time for many members of our community that have had to deal with the fire at 914 and 920 Yonge Street and its significant impacts on the neighbourhood. While various resources were made available by the attentive and excellent City staff who attended to the scene and helped residents in the aftermath, many have called and contacted my office for further information.
The following details are provided to assist residents in determining who they should contact to resolve a number of the concerns that have been raised with my office repeatedly.
Property Tax Appeals
The City of Toronto has information and forms on cancelling or reducing taxes on property that has been razed or rendered unusable. This information can be found at http://www.toronto.ca/taxes/property_tax/tax_appeals.htm#2.
Insurance
You should contact your insurance provider as soon as possible to access benefits. The Insurance Bureau of Canada can be reached at 416-362-9528 or 1-800-387-2880 for consumer assistance.
Toronto’s Claims website can be accessed at www.toronto.ca/finance/other_claims.htm. For the fastest response, email claims to claims@toronto.ca. You can follow-up with 416-392-7783 if there is no response after 48 hours.
Shelter for Families
Those seeking emergency shelter can call the Central Family Intake at 416-397-5637.
Shelter for Single Men, Single Women, Youth, and Couples
The Assessment and Referral Centre can be of assistance at 416-339-4766.
Other Shelter Concerns
The Central Intake line for Shelter, Support and Housing is 1-877-338-3398.
Financial Assistance
Ontario Works and employment training is provided through Toronto Employment and Social Services at 416-392-2956.
Counselling Services
The Distress Centre offers emotional support, crisis intervention, suicide prevention, and connections with emergency help at 416-408-4357.
The Gerstein Centre provides crisis intervention to adults, living in the City of Toronto. The Centre provides supportive counselling for immediate, crisis issues and referrals to other services for on-going, non-crisis issues. Their crisis line can be reached at (416) 929-5200. Their referral line can be reached at (416) 929-9897.
Crisis Response
Toronto Community Crisis Response can be reached at (416) 526-0588.
Pets
Toronto Animal Services provides 24-hour emergency response for missing pets at 416-338-7297.
Health
For general health information and advice, Telehealth Ontario can be reached at 1-866-797-0000.
Those who feel unsafe can contact Toronto Public Health at 416-338-7600 to reach their Community Crisis Support Team.
Tenancy
For questions about tenants’ rights and obligations, the Tenant Hotline is run M-F (8:30am-6pm) at 416-921-9494.
Additional Resources
211 is a fully searchable, bilingual point of access to over 60,000 community, social, health and related government programs and services in Ontario that can be accessed at www.211toronto.ca.
311 provides information on City Services and can be reached by dialing 311 or going to www.toronto.ca/311/.
