Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee, for your invitation to appear today.
My name is Michael Lethby. I'm the executive director of Raft, a youth-serving organization in the Niagara region.
It is likely no surprise to the committee that homelessness has been increasing across Canada. It has been reported that instances of homelessness have more than doubled since 2018, with many smaller communities seeing visible homeless in their streets and parks for the first time.
My first-hand experience in the homeless sector occurred in spring 2005, when Out of the Cold, a volunteer-run overnight shelter, closed after winter. Unlike other years, the residents of this shelter banded together and occupied St. Catharines' Montebello Park. This group, which called itself A Ray of Hope, had one demand: that the municipality open a year-round shelter.
The city sought temporary accommodation by opening a shelter on unused city property. I was selected to manage the shelter and work with A Ray of Hope leadership to find a resolution. The solution was a request for proposal issued by the municipality to open and operate a year-round shelter. At the time, this did seem like a solution. It resolved an immediate crisis in a fair and respectful manner. What we didn't understand was that we had started a process of increasing homelessness in St. Catharines and Niagara.
In 2006, I became the executive director of Raft, a 10-bed youth shelter in a dilapidated building in downtown St. Catharines. This building was in such poor shape that none of the doors closed, including the door to the only bathroom, and it was so infested with rodents that we would find their bodies throughout the building. Even in such a state, our shelter was full every night, and I was forced to turn away youth.
The solution, which I'd already experienced, was to open a new, larger shelter, which I did in 2007. The new shelter was and remains beautiful, with 24 beds, large rooms, proper showers and bathrooms, a full kitchen, doors that close and no rodents. Within a couple of months, the solution was overrun. All my beds were full, and I was back to turning kids away.
I'm telling you these stories because I want to establish for the committee that I was part of the problem. The solution to homelessness was opening more shelters. This solution entrenches homelessness, creating a vicious cycle of homelessness, which leads to expanding shelters, which leads to increasing homelessness. I know this is true, because I both witnessed it and have participated in it.
In 2006, Raft sheltered 120 individual youth. In the years 2007-08, the new shelter saw the number increase to almost 500 per year. Not only was the shelter entrenching youth in St. Catharines into homelessness, but we had also started pulling youth from the smaller communities and towns.
However, here's where the story changes. I didn't open a 35-bed shelter or a 50-bed shelter. Overwhelmed by demand and lacking any ability to increase supply, I started considering how to reduce demand. What I found was that the majority of my assumptions about homelessness were wrong. For example, I found that the majority of kids accessing my shelter were in high school immediately prior to becoming homeless, and that, for many, they had dropped out of school in order to access shelter. These weren't “bad kids”. However, once in my shelter, few returned to their schools or their communities. Instead, for many, they had found a new community in homelessness in the street.
Our solution was a program called Youth Reconnect, a simple program that works with teachers to identify students who may be struggling with housing. Once identified, a Raft worker meets with the student to understand the struggle, and works to develop the solution. This approach was instantly successful. Students remained housed in their community and remained attached to their schools. Importantly, they remained attached to their natural supports.
In 2013, Youth Reconnect was available to every student in Niagara. That year, the Raft shelter went from sheltering close to 500 youth per year to 160, which represents a 70% reduction in youth homelessness. Since then, Raft has expanded its prevention and diversion programming, adding shelter diversion and dedicated family and natural supports. As a consequence, homeless youth are only 6% to 8% of the homeless population in Niagara. In 2024, the other youth shelter closed due to a lack of demand. Raft is now the only youth shelter. We have an average of three to four kids per night in a region with a population nearing half a million—one shelter, four kids.
Achieving this solution requires the following: recognizing that homelessness is caused by impaired relationships and social exclusion; an unwavering focus on housing, including the recognition that family is Canada's largest provider of affordable housing; offering fully funded, proven prevention and diversion programs; and increasing the productivity of shelters by reducing lengths of stay and increasing successful discharges to housing.
Thank you.