Investigative Reports

Showing 1 to 10 of 52 items

Person typing on a calculator, the number 25,546 on the screen.

An Investigation into the City’s Handling of a Resident’s Social Assistance Overpayments

December 11, 2025

Ombudsman Kwame Addo’s investigation found that the City’s Employment and Social Services (TESS) division made multiple errors in how it responded to a Toronto mother who received $25,546 in excess social assistance benefits. City staff did not give the client (named Dina in the report) a clear explanation of what she owed, neglected information that supported her case, didn’t speak to her to understand the facts and kept her waiting for hours when she tried to speak to a supervisor. The report includes 18 recommendations designed to strengthen the division’s processes concerning overpayments, financial reviews, related safeguards and communication.

Dense urban neighbourhood blanketed in snow.

An Investigation into the City’s Response to a Vital Services Outage in a Multi-Tenant Home

May 15, 2025

Ombudsman Kwame Addo’s investigation found that the City mishandled a vital services outage at a rooming house. Eleven tenants were forced to live in unhabitable conditions because the rooming house had no heat, power or water for 6 months. City staff acted with bias, failed to enforce bylaws and did not act in line with the City’s commitment to progressively realize the right to adequate housing. The report includes 27 recommendations to address systemic issues and prevent this from happening again.

An Investigation into the City’s Decision to Stop Allowing Refugee Claimants into Base Shelter System Beds

December 12, 2024

Toronto’s Ombudsman Kwame Addo finds that the City of Toronto’s decision to stop allowing refugee claimants access to its base shelter beds was unfair, poorly planned, and inconsistent with its commitments to transparency, accountability, and the human right to adequate housing.

An Investigation into the Toronto Police Service’s Communications About its Vulnerable Persons Registry

September 5, 2024

In December 2019, the Toronto Police Service (TPS) launched a Vulnerable Persons Registry (VPR) to improve police officers’ interactions with vulnerable persons in crisis through the creation of personalized de-escalation strategies. However, four years later, communications failures and poor management have meant that few of the people the registry aims to support have actually registered for it. This report outlines the findings of our investigation into the transparency, adequacy, and meaningfulness of the TOS’s communications about the VPR.

Housing Unit Status Update

July 19, 2024

This status report describes the activities of our Housing Unit since its creation in July 2023. In less than a year, we have fully staffed the Housing Unit, developed its infrastructure, launched two investigations, provided consultations to City staff, and met with more than 170 people through our engagement work.

An Investigation into Toronto Hydro’s Process for Customer-Owned Infrastructure

April 12, 2024

35 years after purchasing a property, Mr. A. received a notice from Toronto Hydro telling him he was responsible for approximately $20,000 of repairs to an underground hydro vault he did not know about and was never told he owned. That’s when he contacted our office for help.

An Investigation into Toronto Community Housing Corporation’s Tenant Human Rights Complaints Process

June 9, 2023

We heard from several TCHC tenants who had complaints that involved their human rights and were concerned that TCHC did not have a system in place to address them. Human rights are fundamental rights and TCHC has legal obligations under the Ontario Human Rights Code to respect those rights.

Investigation into the City’s Clearing of Encampments in Summer 2021

March 24, 2023

Our investigation into how the City planned, engaged, and communicated about its response to encampments found that the City chose expediency over the needs of people living in encampments, causing undue confusion and harm. The overall result was significant unfairness.

An Investigation into the City’s Process for Clearing Encampments in 2021: Interim Report

July 14, 2022

Clearing encampments is extremely disruptive and can be traumatizing to the people living in them—the City owes a high duty of fairness to encamped residents. Given how important this issue is, and the fact that the City is continuing to clear encampments, we released an interim report with early recommendations that the City should act on immediately.

Enquiry into the City of Toronto’s Communication and Enforcement of COVID-19 Rules in City Parks in Spring 2020

July 9, 2021

We heard from 10 people who got tickets from for violating COVID-19 rules for use of City parks. A common theme: they felt they had been penalized not for flouting the COVID-19 rules on the use of City parks, but for simply being unaware of them or not fully understanding them.