Toronto hospital housing model ‘a gift’ to residents as ER visits reduced by half – CTV
October 03, 2025
TORONTO — Every time Jason Miles walked out of prison, he would be bigger, stronger and meaner.
Behind bars, he lifted weights all day and made connections that led him to commit more dangerous crimes for more money.
The 44-year-old Toronto man said his lengthy rap sheet included fights, stabbings and car thefts. He became hooked on crack and fentanyl and lived on the street for the better part of a decade, when he wasn’t incarcerated. Until recently, he’d never met a cop, nurse or doctor he liked.
When Miles wasn’t on the streets or in jail, he was in a hospital – a lot.
He was a perfect example of what health officials have long called “frequent flyers”: patients, usually homeless, who visit the emergency department or get admitted to hospital an inordinate number of times.
When Dr. Andrew Boozary and his team at Toronto’s University Health Network looked deeper into the issue, they discovered that about 100 patients accounted for more than 4,500 emergency department visits in one year.
A month-long hospital stay costs the public health system more than $60,000, he said, compared to $15,000 a month to keep a person in a provincial jail and about $6,000 to house someone in a shelter.
