Toronto developer's app tackles 'very complex' homelessness in the city: 'Social issue that affects us all'

The developer behind the website Respitely is working to connect people experiencing homelessness and food insecurity with available shelter and meals in Toronto. The website was launched in late June amid a housing crisis in the city that impacts more than 10,000 people a day.

And while those in the sector insist that more housing is the main way to fix the crisis, one expert with lived experience says the app will be useful for many.

Arjun Sahjpaul is a full stack developer based in Toronto. After completing a software engineering program at Toronto's Brainstation, he was looking for a way to apply his new found skills. While talking to an uncle who works in the field, Sahjpaul was asked what good he could do with his skillset.

“This resonated with me considering my mother’s strong belief in helping others,” he tells Yahoo Canada. “I began reflecting on her values that guided her life and the values she worked hard to impress on her children.”

Sahjpaul figured he would create a platform using available data and resources. The website presents the tagline: “Find food and shelter in Toronto. Today.”

App developer was inspired by his late mother

Sahjpaul’s late mother and uncle grew up in poverty in Toronto. He has memories of visiting his uncle who lived in the shelter system when he was young, which had a profound impact on him. With his family heavily on his mind, Sahjpaul knew he wanted to do something that could help people experiencing homelessness or hunger.

"My mother taught me how to be grateful for my blessing and instilled compassion and empathy and a need to help others who need it most," he says.

Sahjpaul took the City of Toronto’s open data that provides updates on shelter availability and applied javascript to feature the information in a more accessible and searchable format. He also re-formatted data from the meal drop-in network, which was available in a multi-page table format, and presented it in real time.

"If you just look at the data alone, it's very overwhelming, it's a lot at once," he says. "It can be a lot to shift through. Using my skills, I was able to present it in a way that's more presentable and useful for those who need it ... I tried to simplify the process for the end user.”

Users of Respitely can see a timeline of where and when meals and snacks are available throughout the day across Toronto, as well as on a map. The site also features the latest shelter occupancy, using filters, which include capacity type (beds or rooms), demographic (men, women, families, mixed, or youth), program type (emergency or transitional) and municipality.

The platform also provides links to various resources like community fridges, government benefits and health services.

Expert says site is a 'very good tool,' suggests improvements

Peter Martin is the housing solutions manager with the Toronto Alliance to End Homelessness. He says as a former homeless person, he would have benefitted from a resource like Respitely.

“In the context of the lived realities of Canada, I think it’s a very good tool,” he says.

However, he adds that there are a few things he would change to make it more effective when targeting certain demographics.

“You learn pretty quickly from the community of homeless people and poor people where you can go every day of the week for each type of meal,” he says. “This kind of app wouldn’t be useful for someone like that."

Martin says Respitely would also benefit from including places that offer special meals weekly or monthly, such as roast dinners.

“For someone living on the streets, a roast dinner is something you’d want to know about," he says. “Often you want to know that so you can have variation in your diet.”

He also suggests the platform should indicate whether a shelter is only intended for a specific demographic, like Indigenous and LGBTQ2S+ communities.

Indigenous, LGBTQ2S+ folks disproportionately experience homelessness

Fred Victor, a charity that focuses on homelessness issues, states that on any given night in Toronto, there are more than 10,000 experiencing homelessness. Of that number, Indigenous and LGBTQ2S+ communities tend to be overrepresented.

A 2021 report by the City of Toronto found that Indigenous people represented 15% of people experiencing homelessness, despite only making up to 2.5% of the city's population. In Canada, a 2023 Statistics Canada report found that Indigenous households were almost three times as likely to have experienced some form of homelessness when compared with the total population.

Homeless Hub, a web-based research library, found that 25 – 40 per cent of homeless youth identify as LGBTQ2S+, compared to only 5% of the overall youth population.

Developer wants to expand to other cities

Sahjpaul has been open to all the feedback he’s received, which includes from people in the health and housing sector. He hopes to eventually expand the site to include features like a portal login for drop-in providers that would help manage any changes to their services, which would instantly be reflected on the site. He’s also looking to eventually partner with municipalities in other Canadian and U.S. cities.

And while Sahjpaul understands that much more needs to be done to end homelessness, he hopes his platform is a help in some small way.

“I know one app can’t fix the problem, it's a very complex and nuanced social issue that affects us all,” he says. “But my hope was to use my skills to help simplify one little piece of my problem.”