\u201cThis has been a crisis for a long time, but I\u2019d say it\u2019s been amplified since the pandemic,\u201d said Melanie Doucet, a Montreal-based researcher and director of the National Council of Youth In Care Advocates.<\/p>\n
The erosion of housing affordability, especially, has made it increasingly difficult for young people to find their footing without the support systems\u00a0their peers have, said Doucet \u2014 who was placed in the child welfare system herself as a young teenager living in rural New Brunswick.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes my skin crawl to just think about it, to try to age out today.\u201d<\/p>\n
From one struggle to the next<\/p>\n
When he talks about his childhood,\u00a0Ryan\u00a0\u2014 whose last name the Star agreed not to disclose\u00a0due to his age and precarious\u00a0situation\u00a0\u2014\u00a0stresses it wasn\u2019t all bad, though he knows it was different than other kids\u2019 upbringings.<\/p>\n
Ryan\u00a0can\u2019t recall exactly what age he was when he was briefly in the child welfare system\u00a0\u2014 around eight, maybe. He hated being split up from his siblings, though he remembers an older couple being good to him. After a few months, he said he was able to return home.\u00a0Ryan doesn\u2019t have contact with his father, but speaks warmly about his mom.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But as the years wore on, Ryan\u2019s own struggles came to the forefront. Diagnosed with autism, he says he also struggles with anxiety, ADHD and depression severe enough that he eventually stopped attending school.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ryan is now is searching for a rental he can afford on his own to get out of the shelter system. At 18, he\u2019s still eligible for some financial support from the Ready, Set, Go program that assists young people transitioning out of child welfare.<\/p>\n
Nick Lachance\/Toronto Star<\/p>\n
His challenges with his mental health sometimes led to conflicts at home, when he would get angry and lash out. Ryan and his family hoped he\u00a0could\u00a0secure a space at a live-in mental health treatment centre, but a space like that wasn\u2019t open yet. As conflicts continued at home, it seemed to him one of two things would happen: he would end up back in the hospital, or the police would be called. Eventually, his mom told him he had to leave.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe both agree\u00a0that it\u2019s better that I do try to live somewhere else,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ryan was only 17 at the time \u2014\u00a0a child in the eyes of the law, meaning child welfare officials still needed to be\u00a0involved in his case.<\/p>\n
There were a variety of workers in his orbit since last year, and he has appreciated their help\u00a0\u2014 whether setting up his bank account and getting onto income supports, or just letting him \u201cvent.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
But with no immediate housing plan available, and no plans to go back into foster care, Ryan found himself homeless.\u00a0<\/p>\n
No \u2018warm handover\u2019 to adulthood<\/p>\n
For kids in the child welfare system, the transition to adulthood means the supports around them start to be pulled back at a time when their peers might still be living at home or relying heavily on parental support.<\/p>\n
Whether due to this withdrawal of supports or other, more entangled challenges\u00a0\u2014 like youth still dealing with past traumatic events\u00a0\u2014 cities like Toronto have long seen a number of\u00a0youth\u00a0formerly in care wind up on the streets or in emergency shelters.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2024, when Toronto last conducted an in-depth street needs assessment, 10 per cent of homeless respondents across shelters, encampments and other settings like hospitals and jails reported time in foster care or group homes. At a time when 15,418 people were estimated to be homeless,\u00a0that amounts to more than 1,500 people. It included around 170 youth under 25 in shelters.<\/p>\n
Veteran Toronto community worker Diana Chan McNally knows first-hand how hard it is to find your footing as a young person out on their own; she was a ward of the child welfare system herself as a teenager.<\/p>\n
There is no \u201cwarm handover\u201d from childhood to adulthood, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She has repeatedly seen people\u00a0end up on\u00a0the streets during the transition years. Young people looking for someone to trust were especially vulnerable to sexual violence, human trafficking and other exploitation, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen people absolutely get taken advantage of.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She fears they\u2019re also at risk of chronic homelessness, particularly once they reach their late 20s or early 30s: \u201cIf you haven\u2019t kind of solved it by this age, more often than not what I\u2019ve seen is people just stay homeless,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In 2023, Ontario promised a new program\u00a0\u2014 Ready, Set, Go\u00a0\u2014 meant to give young people life skills, supports and financial backing as they transitioned out of the child welfare system. The idea was to start talking about the future with kids sooner, beginning as young as 13 years old.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It extended the runway for youth to remain \u201cin care\u201d and receive financial supports to a cut-off of 23 years old, up from 21. The funding slowly declines from $1,800 per month for an 18-year-old to $500 per month at age 22.<\/p>\n
The extension was a good change, says Doucet. But she says she doesn\u2019t believe it\u2019s yet a long enough buffer.<\/p>\n
Ideally, Doucet suggested extending support to some degree to at least 25. Through her early 20s, after aging out of the child welfare system, she said she couch surfed and bounced between living set-ups. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t until I was, I\u2019d say, 26 or 27ish, that I started to feel like I had a bit of stable footing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In October, Doucet spoke before the Senate Committee on Human Rights as it considered this issue. She cited grim statistics, including youth in care having rates of post-traumatic stress comparable to veterans of the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n
The Senate report, which called for a national action plan, reported that Canada is \u201cone of very few Western countries\u201d without national legislation or standards for support offered when kids in care transition into adulthood.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some social service players in Toronto believe a big-picture approach is key, looking not only at the child welfare system, but also across social services.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEconomic, educational, health, mental health, employment and youth housing needs are deeply interconnected, and our response must reflect that,\u201d said John Harvey, chief program officer for youth agency Covenant House.<\/p>\n