Youth Without Shelter is a 5-star charity. It has above average disclosure with an A results reporting grade. It holds reserves within Ci’s reasonable range. For every dollar donated to the charity, 79 cents are available to go to the cause.

A Charity Intelligence 2025 Top 100 Rated Charity.

Founded in 1986, Youth Without Shelter (YWS) provides emergency housing and social services to homeless youth aged 16 to 24 in Toronto. According to the charity, up to 2,000 youths are homeless on Toronto’s streets each night, which represents 11% of Toronto’s total homeless population. 63% of homeless youth have experienced some form of childhood trauma and abuse and approximately 65% come from families that struggle with substance abuse.

YWS runs three programs: Housing, Support, and Community Engagement. It spent $4.0m on its programs in the fiscal year ending March 2025 (F2025). In F2025, it served 631 youths across all its programs and provided 20,737 nights of shelter.

Housing is YWS's largest program, accounting for 73% of program spending in F2025. It consists of three programs: the Emergency Residential Program, the Stay in School Program (SIS), and Helix House.

The Emergency Residential Program is a 33-bed crisis shelter. It provides homeless youth with safe shelter, crisis counselling, nutritious food, clothing, and hygiene products.

The SIS Program offers 20-bed transitional housing for youth completing their education. Residents receive case management, tutoring, mentorship, school supplies, and transit fares. In return, they must maintain their grades, attend school regularly, and complete household chores.

Across the Emergency Residential Program and SIS Program, YWS provided 18,912 bed nights, 96,725 meals and snacks, and held 1,827 case management meetings in F2025. The Emergency Residential Program served 100 youths and the SIS Program served 52, of whom 9 graduated.

Helix House is a 24-bed facility where YWS acts as landlord. It provides transitional housing for SIS youth and deeply affordable rental units for After-Care youth. In F2025, it delivered 1,825 nights of shelter and served 9 youths.

Support Programs accounted for 21% of YWS's program spending, covering Life Skills, Mental Health, Employment, and Housing After-Care. The four subprograms served 173 youths through employment, 78 through mental health, 269 through housing and after-care, and 11 through life skills. After-care also included 581 food bank visits and 45 On the Move Kits (packages of kitchen supplies, bedding, and an inflatable mattress for youth awaiting furniture delivery).

Community Engagement accounted for 6% of YWS's program spending. It includes Educational Outreach and Volunteer subprograms. In F2025, YWS held 23 workshops attended by 462 participants.

As of April 2026, YWS restructured its Emergency Residential Program. Life skills and employment supports are now delivered directly by Primary Case Managers, who work one-on-one with youth from intake through to housing stabilization.

Youth Without Shelter’s audited financial statements follow line-item costing, meaning it does not clearly report which expenses relate to program, administrative, and fundraising activities. Ci has allocated salaries and benefits to program costs, though these likely include administrative and fundraising salaries as well. As a result, program costs may be overstated and administrative and fundraising costs understated. This means overhead is likely understated and cents to the cause overstated.

In F2025, Youth Without Shelter earned $6.1m in revenue. It received $3.1m in donations (50% of total revenue), $2.3m in government funding (38% of total revenue), and $560k in non-cash donations such as food, clothing, and hygiene products (9% of total revenue).

Administrative costs are 6% of revenue (excluding investment income). Fundraising costs are 15% of donations. This results in a total overhead spending of 21%. For every dollar donated to the charity, 79 cents go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range.

YWS spent $4.0m on its programs in F2025, which is 9% higher than the $3.7m it spent in F2024.

In F2025, the charity had an operating surplus of $584k. Ci backed out $1.2m worth of interest-bearing mortgage debt related to its Helix House property. This brought its reserve funds (cash and investments) to $776k. These reserves cover 19%, or just over 2 months of its annual program spending.

This charity update has been sent to Youth Without Shelter for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming. Updated by Nick Reszetnik on June 16, 2026.