Winnie Czulinski –
From Gen Z to senior, how should a community deal with people coping with addiction, mental illness, abuse and past-incarceration – and being unhoused? Downtown East has diverse resources, including paths to permanent homes.
“Transitional housing programs are critically important,” says Mark Aston, executive director of Covenant House Toronto. “They provide that stepping stone for a young person to move out of shelter, get back into the community. They give people time to stabilize, to start pursuing whatever their plans and interests are. It could be going back to school, to college, working a career pathway, saving some money.”
Covenant House operates about a third of the shelter beds for young people in Toronto and opened a respite program this winter. It has transitional options that include several youth sharing a house, often with a live-in mentor and on-site staff, and affordable scattered site units. Overall, Covenant House Toronto has about 300 units, with the largest off-site facility housing about 65 residents.
The agency’s Rights of Passage program gives young people an opportunity to learn and practise life skills before they move out on their own. They live on a shared floor with private rooms at the main Covenant House site. In addition to learning from chores and responsibilities, the youth can access extensive support for employment, school, job training and mental health.
When Mickey arrived at 17 years old, she was shy but determined and focused. “I was in school and also working, and very stressed,” she said. “But knowing I had a safe place to sleep at night, and meals to eat – that really meant a lot.”
Overnight youth worker Marva Townsend-Joao helped Mickey learn how to cook, budget, and feel safe. “I’m getting shivers just thinking about the confidence that she developed from trying things and being resilient,” said Townsend-Joao.
Other Downtown East housing initiatives include those of Elizabeth Fry Toronto, with programs such as the Phyllis Haslam Community Residential Program for women on parole; the Home for Good program, offering safe, stable housing for women with a history of homelessness who are transitioning out of institutions; and the EF Housing Success program that supports continued housing stability.
St. Michael’s Homes on Carlton Street and Gerrard Street has 75 beds in four residential settings, out-patient counselling and psychotherapy, and a drop-in serving clients experiencing mental health problems. Transitional programs offer stays of up to 12 months or even four years. Still, it’s a struggle.
Yonge Street Mission, which assisted 208 adults and youth in 2025, is in its 130th year. Its manager of housing, Kristin Booy, says, “The biggest challenges are linked to an overburdened shelter system and an overburdened subsidized housing system. The private market is inaccessible, shelters are full and there is over a decade-long waiting list for a subsidized housing unit.”
The mission’s Genesis Place has 26 rent-geared-to-income units, some of them permanent. New vacancies are filled via a referral process and agreement from the tenant to work on goals for three years.
“Since [the facility] was built in 1990, it has sought to provide housing for the hard-to-house,” says Booy. Vacancies are filled with people from the shelter system or short-term transitional housing.
“We strive to create a place where individuals and households can stabilize while experiencing a safe and affordable place to live.” Supports and goal-setting help people transition to a permanent option.
One man with history of trauma and physical disability, who came from the mission’s Evergreen Centre for Street-Involved Youth, began to open up at Genesis Place. Social assistance problems were corrected and he applied to, and was accepted at, a college to work on a social services diploma. He then received subsidized permanent housing from the Toronto Community Housing Corporation.
Yonge Street Mission is developing a section of Gerrard Street East with ELEV8 by YSM, a housing rental model of 194 units, with employment and entrepreneurship hubs. The Progress in Place project aims to create a pathway out of social housing into affordable and workforce housing, and ultimately market housing.
Mickey, who was helped by Covenant House Toronto’s Rights of Passage transitional housing program, graduated from nursing school and got community housing from Covenant House. “I still use their counseling services and healthcare. It’s really nice to know that there’s backup and that there’s a safety net.
“I honestly don’t know where I’d be right now if it hadn’t been for Covenant House.”
