Winnie Czulinski –
When they arrive at the Red Door Family Shelter they may be in deep shock. Their loss is great – home, friends, schoolmates, security.
“The first thing children see here is a playground,” says executive director Maritza Sanchez. “Hopefully that eases their mind a bit and says, there’s a place here for me, and it’s not so bad.”
The building on Booth Avenue south of Queen Street East (with an office on Carlaw Avenue) is bright and welcoming. Beginning as a 28-bed emergency shelter in the basement of WoodGreen United Church 40 years ago, Red Door now provides private en-suite support to hundreds of families a year, 70 at a time, experiencing homelessness. Three fifths of that population are children, from babies to teens.
The demand for Toronto’s family shelter spaces has risen dramatically, with the number of kids in shelter tripling since 2016. As of September 2024, nearly 1,500 children were staying in Toronto shelters. More than 1,400 children were waiting for space, staying in scattered hotel rooms paid for by the city.
Sanchez says the increase comes mostly from Canadian residents losing their homes to rising housing costs, evictions, house fires, etc. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, families are residing at the shelter up to a year instead of a few months.
Red Door, which also operates a gender-based shelter as a refuge from violence, provides 24-hour safety, with crisis counselling, legal immigration and onsite medical assistance, referrals, housing help, childcare and educational programs, case management, parenting and life-skills training. It also offers programs to work through disruption, trauma and communication problems.
“A lot of children blame themselves for the situation their parents are in,” Sanchez says. “We want to be able to show that not all relationships are dysfunctional, and that they can learn to identify that early on.”
Schooling is a long-time concern. A 2007 report titled “Lost in the Shuffle” by Ann Decter, the Aisling Discoveries Child and Family Centre, and the Community Social Planning Council of Toronto, looked at six-to-twelve-year-olds. “Most of the children who go to a shelter will change schools three times in the year,” it found.
At Red Door, some children go to the local school, or their previous one. There’s a school liaison for teachers and principals who may have negative ideas about shelter residents. At Red Door’s Homework Club, volunteers, often retired teachers, provide one-on-one or group support.
“It gives the children a sense of belonging, where they’re all together doing their homework,” Sanchez says. Sometimes a tutor is hired. The Red Door also offers scholarships for children.
There are fun outings and picnics – and birthday parties by Project Be Kind, an initiative begun by young Toronto resident Peyton Verhoeven in 2021. In high school she volunteered in support of the city’s unhoused community “and was struck by the fact that nearly 20 percent were children. When I learned that many children’s birthdays went uncelebrated, I knew I had to change that.”
The monthly events created by Verhoeven and her team feature cake, festive decorations, wish-list gifts, loot bags, music, singing and dancing. Project Be Kind works with local contributors from bakeries to face-painters.
Sometimes parents are little more than children themselves, as at Jessie’s, The June Callwood Centre for Young Women. Founded in 1982 by writer/activist Callwood, this drop-in resource centre at 205 Parliament Street is a “welcoming community” for pregnant and parenting women up to 21 years old.
Services include housing assistance, counselling and case management, education, early childhood education, pre-natal, parenting and practical supports, and recreation. Jessie’s has lots of success stories.
One infant, Kiara, thrived along with her mom Kyona, who was taking the school program. “Being at Jessie’s, attending their programs and daycare, helped a lot in Kiara’s development,” Kyona said.
Verhoeven warmly recalls the first Red Door Family Shelter birthday party arranged by Project Be Kind. “During our candy-jar challenge, a young girl who had just arrived from Ukraine won. Before taking one for herself, she shared the candy with every other child at the shelter.
“That first celebration showed me the power of these parties to create joy, dignity, and connection for children and families who need it most.”
