When Job Gori moved to Canada from Kenya a year ago, he spent his first night in the country sleeping in a Toronto park.
“I came here knowing nobody,” Gori said.
After sleeping in an encampment at Allan Gardens, the 23-year-old then secured a bed at Covenant House Toronto as part of its youth winter respite program. The agency serves Toronto youth who are unhoused, trafficked or at risk.
Covenant House Toronto’s winter respite program, which officially launched on Friday for its third season, is meant to give people aged 16 to 24 a warm place to stay in winter. It operates around the clock and will run until April.
“They gave me food, that’s what I needed most. They gave me shelter,” Gori said. “I really appreciate this program. It’s a program that saved my life.”
Now, Gori says he has a job, housing and is running his own company.
“It played a very big role to my life actually, because from the streets to where I am right now, it’s a big journey.”
Gori was one of a handful of speakers who marked the start of the program on Friday. This is the second year that it is funded by the city. The program started earlier this month.
Officials at Covenant House say the program is the only youth-specific one that is part of the city’s winter services plan. It adds up to 45 beds on top of the agency’s 105 regular shelter spaces.
Ahead of winter, Covenant House Toronto is launching a respite program to provide care and shelter to youth experiencing homelessness across the city. CBC’s Naama Weingarten has the details.
Mark Aston, executive director of Covenant House Toronto, said demand is great for its spaces and services.
“We continue to see increase in demand for our services with more young people showing up at our doors in need every day,” Aston said.
‘Hidden homelessness’ may mask scope of problem
In the past year, the agency says it served about 2,500 young people. On its daily basis, its drop-in serves about 100 young people, providing them with food or clean clothes, among other things.
The agency also saw a 35 per cent rise in demand for mental health services in the past year.
According to the city, youth from 16 to 24 make up about 12 per cent of the city’s homeless population, and more than 1,000 young people are in the city’s shelter system every night. But Aston said the numbers are an undercount because young people experience “hidden homelessness.”
The program is low barrier, he said.
“When you provide effective help and support to a young person, you prevent them from becoming a chronically homeless adult,” he said.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, who also spoke at the news conference, said the city is contributing more than $800,000 to the program this year.
“We know that Covenant House doesn’t just offer a bed. You see beds here. But they offer hope,” Chow said.
The program also provides 16 to 24-year-olds access to on-site healthcare and youth-focused mental health services. Young people participating in the program will have access to on-site educational and employment resources as well.
In a news release, Aston said: “We know that providing the right level of support at each point in a young person’s journey forward leads to improved health and social outcomes. This program is providing life-saving refuge for our community’s most vulnerable residents and access to important services that help them build their path forward out of homelessness.”
According to the city’s own data, the number of people actively homeless in the last three months in Toronto was 10,331, while the average number of people turned away from the city’s shelter system in October was 225 nightly.