Health committee  As I noted, prevention is such a critical part of addressing the issue of youth homelessness. The stronger families are, the less likelihood there will be, down the road, of homelessness. Obviously, nothing's a guarantee, but it certainly is a big step forward in making sure that families get the support they need to better understand how to strengthen the needs of their kids and to work with the schools.

Health committee  That's HOPE, our anti-human-trafficking program.

Health committee  We are the only housing service for youth in the region providing human-trafficking programs. It was affected in that it is a small apartment so we weren't able to support as many young people, but what we were able to do was actually to keep them for longer periods. I'll just state quickly that one of the challenges is that the lockdowns had an adverse impact on many of those youth because it reminded them of being pimped when they were locked into hotels.

Health committee  I'm not sure “popular” is the right word, but certainly—

Health committee  Is that better?

Health committee  Okay. As we know, pre-COVID, pre-pandemic, the need for mental health services for a homeless population was high to begin with. We know from research it is one of the challenges, whether it's a cause or an effect of being homeless. The Kids Help Phone services, the Canadian Mental Health Association services, 310-COPE and all those things were important pre-COVID, and then you add a pandemic, with a whole bunch of uncertainty for these young people.

Health committee  Yes. For sure, it's our mental health supports. As I mentioned, we saw a fivefold increase in the number of youth accessing mental health services. Pre-COVID, we were serving over 1,200 youth in our drop-in programs, but that number decreased. Therefore, you could maybe show a correlation between the lack of access to services adding to an increase in the need for a number of mental health services.

Health committee  As we know, in being homeless, there's a high level of anxiety and a high degree of stress and addictions that come with that, and this is pre-pandemic, so adding the notion of a pandemic exacerbates an already challenging situation. The need for the services you mentioned, the Kids Help Phone, etc., is critical during both times, and we've seen just with 310-COPE here in York region and the Canadian Mental Health Association, all of those organizations—

Health committee  Thank you. Through you, Mr. Chair, thank you for the opportunity to speak to the committee this afternoon on behalf of 360°kids. As one of the leading youth agencies in York region, 360°kids has a 32-year history of providing services to homeless youth, including victims and survivors of human trafficking.