As the number of homeless youth rises in Toronto, advocates say youth-specific intervention is needed to tackle the “growing youth homelessness crisis.”
That’s the stance of Covenant House in its 2025 Youth Homelessness Summit Summary report released Monday.
The report comes on the heels of the city’s street needs assessment in July, which found that of the estimated 15,418 people experiencing homelessness in Toronto on Oct. 23, 2024, 10 per cent — about 1,500 — were those aged 16 to 24 experiencing homelessness on any given night.
That number of youth is more than double the up to 740 shelter beds available, according to the organization.
The needs assessment is based on a citywide point-in-time count.
“Underlying homelessness, too, is the type of anxiety, stress and mental illness, frankly, that young people are struggling with these days,” said Mark Aston, CEO of Covenant House. “Layer onto that the affordability crisis, the real difficulties young people have affording rent, food, transportation, and then if they’re trying to go to school or something like that on top of that, it can be a very, very challenging time for young people.”
But the organization warns that what’s more concerning is youth who are living in chronic homelessness, defined as those who have experienced it for six months or longer in a year.
A study released in January of this year by the Association of Municipalities in Ontario found that more than 80,000 Ontarians experienced homelessness in 2024, with more than half being deemed chronically homeless.
The study said nearly 25 per cent of those experiencing chronic homelessness are those ages 16 to 24.
Aston notes that while homelessness is an all-ages issue, the factors surrounding it differ. He said while a 45-year-old might face homelessness due to housing issues, youth can face it due to family stress and familial breakdown due to poverty, alienation, abuse and other aspects.
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Covenant House’s report lays out several recommendations on tackling the issue of youth homelessness, including establishing a youth-specific homelessness strategy for the city that prioritizes prevention, while expanding housing options and putting youth into the decision-making process.
“For some adults, a roof is just what they need, like a place to live, and if it’s affordable, they’ll do fine,” Aston said. “Most often for young people, it’s really connection they need, and it takes a little bit of thinking to really understand the implications of that, like a young person needs connection to caring adults in the community.
The City of Toronto is looking at what can be done to address the issue, including how a youth-specific strategy could work.
Joseph Stalteri, director of service planning and integrity for Toronto shelter and support services, told Global News such a strategy can speak to the importance of prevention and diversion.
“The idea is to support folks early on for two reasons,” he said. “If we can prevent folks from, particularly young folks, from even accessing or falling into homelessness, then there are potentially better supports available to that youth.”
He added that action needs to be taken to avoid chronic homelessness, intervening for youth to prevent them from falling into the “chronicity.”
It’s not the first time a youth homelessness strategy has been called for, with advocates, including Covenant House, calling for one at the summer summit.
The report also urges ongoing work to strengthen tenant protections and to continue and expand rent control to better assist at-risk youth renters, while also dedicating 10 per cent of all new affordable housing to youth-focused units.
“We’re going to require kind of an all-of-society approach to this,” Stalteri said. “This is not just a City of Toronto issue and is one that the City of Toronto has a role to play in bringing other orders of government to the table to have this conversation and to do that with our sector partners who have that expertise to be part of the solution.”
In a statement to Global News, Michael Minzak, a spokesperson for Ontario Housing Minister Rob Flack, noted the province is investing $75.5 million to create 1,239 additional housing units, 815 supportive housing units, and 971 added shelter spaces to support Ontarians living in encampments.
Minzak said the province is also investing $550 million to create 28 homelessness and addiction recovery treatment hubs, including four in Toronto.
While the report includes several policy recommendations, it also suggests changes to city programs. It urges Toronto to fund and expand shelter diversion programs, improve accessibility to shelters and transitional housing, and develop resources that youth can access easily through people like school guidance counsellors and health-care professionals.
“I think there’s a moment here and there’s real hope for young people in our city because I don’t think that 1,500 number needs to stand,” said Aston. “I truly think that in two, three years we can see something much less if we do the work we need to do.”
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