What to know
- Youth homelessness in Toronto has surged by nearly 75%, with more than 1,500 young people aged 16–24 experiencing homelessness as of October 2024.
- Shelters serving youth are consistently at capacity, with new beds filling almost immediately as demand far outpaces availability.
- Service providers report rising mental health needs among unhoused youth and warn that many are ending up in adult shelters.
- The city is developing a five-year homelessness strategy, but has not confirmed a youth-specific plan.
Every three years, Toronto puts out a Street Needs Assessment (SNA) study, and each rendition reveals what anyone who lives or works in the city will already know anecdotally: our unhoused population is growing.
The latest release of the study shows that 15,418 people were experiencing homelessness in Toronto as of October 23, 2024, and of that total, 10 per cent — around 1,541 people — were youth aged 16 to 24.
While homeless youth accounted for a slightly smaller proportion of the overall homeless population compared to the SNA in 2021, the actual number has climbed by almost 75 per cent, on par with the almost 110 per cent surge in the overall homeless population.
‘Inundated with youth homelessness’
For Covenant House Toronto, the rise in youth homelessness means that their 96-bed shelter near the corner of Yonge and Gerrard Street East is chronically at capacity. Chief Executive Officer Mark Aston can’t quite remember the last time it wasn’t; he estimates it’s been years.
“There’s real pressure on the [shelter] system. There’s more demand for shelter and homes than there are shelter beds and homes to go around at this point that are affordable,” he says.
“The affordability issues in Toronto, it’s difficult for everyone, but it’s incredibly difficult for young people to be able to afford food, transportation, rent. Maybe they’re trying to go to school as well to get their career on track, and trying to do that on part-time income [is] exceedingly difficult unless you can access support, affordable housing, bursaries, those types of things.”
Aston says he’s also seeing an increase in mental health issues among Covenant House users — a “holdover hangover” he attributes to the isolation and anxiety brought on by the pandemic.
Toronto Centre City Councillor Chris Moise, who has toured Covenant House on several occasions, describes it as “inundated with youth homelessness” — and mind you, the organization operates more beds than any other youth shelter in the city. It’s the same story over at Wagner Green YMCA (also known as ‘Y House’ or ‘the Y’), which is an emergency shelter and drop-in centre for unhoused youth on Vanauley Street in Chinatown.
“More than a decade ago, our charity operated a small shelter on Queen Street. It often had a bed or two unused each night. Now, as soon as a bed becomes available at our Wagner Green YMCA, it is filled almost immediately,” Candace Hamilton, general manager of Youth Intervention and Outreach at YMCA of Greater Toronto says.
Extended services still not enough
This past weekend, Covenant House opened 45 more beds as part of its Youth Winter Respite Program, which is backed by the city this year and provides the 16- to 24-year-old cohort with on-site health care and mental health services, skill development opportunities, and education and employment support. The program will run through April 2026.
Including Covenant’s extended programming, there will be less than 500 emergency beds available across ten dedicated youth shelters in the city’s system this winter — some of which are reserved for specific groups, like Indigenous and 2SLGBTQIA+ youth. At the same time, Toronto’s shelter system data shows there were 959 youth actively using the city’s shelter services as of the end of October.
Aston and Hamilton agree that the disparity between shelter use and availability could mean that homeless youth are finding themselves in adult shelters — an option they’re more likely to fall back on as temperatures drop — and Aston underlines that this is “usually not good for them.”
“The causes of youth homelessness are quite distinct in many regards from the causes of adult homelessness, and the same services don’t work,” he adds.“An 18- or 19-year-old probably doesn’t need the same [services] as a 55-year-old. They’re at a different age stage. The brain development is different.”
Without the right services, like mental health and transitional housing programming designed specifically for them, it’s more likely that young people will slip through the cracks, leaving them in the shelter system longer.
Need for youth homelessness strategy dire
While the SNA gets into some of the reasons behind homelessness in general — high housing costs, being new to Canada, conflict with a spouse or partner, etc. — Moise feels that the city needs to be taking a close look at root causes behind youth homelessness specifically. Moise has spoken to youth who have been kicked out of their home because of sexual orientation, or turned to living on the street because of sexual abuse. His hope is that the city will make it a point to dig deeper as part of their forthcoming homelessness strategy.
In an email statement, Senior Communications Advisor with the City of Toronto Elise von Scheel confirmed that staff is in the process of finalizing a five-year homelessness strategy, slated for release in 2026. Though asked if the strategy would encompass a dedicated plan for young people, von Scheel opted not to comment.
She did acknowledge that “additional services are needed” as the city grapples with growing youth homelessness, and highlighted a new youth shelter being developed through the Homelessness Services Capital Infrastructure Strategy. The 50-bed shelter will be located 1615 Dufferin Street and be operated by Covenant House Toronto. It’s expected to open doors in 2027.
In the meantime, both Covenant House and the YMCA of Greater Toronto are focussed on what comes after shelter living. Hamilton shares that they are in the process of constructing 31 supportive housing units downtown thanks to funding from the city and the federal government’s Rapid Housing Initiative, while Aston says Covenant House has added another house to its portfolio that will accommodate around seven young people who are ready to live more independently.
“That’s a key part: enabling young people to stabilize their lives, move into community, and really succeed,” he adds.
