New housing facility for asylum-seekers in Mississauga pitched as solution to shelter overcrowding

From the outside, it looks like just another office building in the maze of business parks, plazas and warehouses that surrounds Pearson International Airport.But this four-storey complex is unlike any other in Canada. Inside, there are 680 dormitory-style bunk beds, a commercial kitchen, showers, lockers, laundry services and prayer rooms for asylum seekers. Opened this month, the Peel Reception Centre is already attracting attention from other municipalities trying to find a better solution for housing the tens of thousands of refugee claimants arriving in this country each year without a place to live.