Just five years after incorporating, a security firm that worked at the City of Toronto’s COVID-era hotel shelters continues to see its multimillion-dollar contracts grow – even after a report to the Health Ministry included claims its staff were poorly trained “bullies.”

One Community Solutions hires private guards to patrol around city shelters and other hot spots for drug use and mental illness. Their responsibilities, as per job postings, include picking up used needles, responding to overdoses and working outdoors, even in winter.

Grouped into what the city calls “community safety teams,” or CSTs, these guards “have been one important tool in the city’s work in resolving encampment sites” and “have been effective contributors to the city’s homelessness work,” City Hall told the in a

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