Founded in 1982, Red Door Family Shelter (Red Door) is now one of the largest family shelters in the Greater Toronto Area. The charity operates a family shelter and a women’s shelter that serves women experiencing domestic violence. Red Door aims to reduce the impact of homelessness by providing shelter and support services to families. Provincial and municipal funding finance the shelters’ basic operations while donations fund programs including medical services, counseling services, legal support, parenting and life skills workshops, and children’s programs.

Red Door’s largest program is its emergency shelter program. Agencies such as Children’s Aid Societies, Police Services, and Central Family Intake refer families to the shelter. In F2020, Red Door Family Shelter housed and supported over 350 families. 188 of these families received emergency shelter. Red Door reports that 55% of the families housed were escaping domestic violence, 34% experienced eviction, and 11% were refugees.

In F2020, 64% of Red Door’s residents were children, many of whom struggle with trauma and loss. Red Door runs an after-school program through its shelters that helps children establish a regular routine. The shelter also runs youth workshops for teenagers and parents on topics like Violence Prevention, Youth and the Law, and Healthy Eating. In F2020, 376 children and youth benefitted from the programs.

Red Door runs food bank and moving programs to support families as they transition into permanent housing. Red Door’s weekly food bank supports families who have moved out of the shelter during their transition into independence. Red Door’s moving program reduces moving costs and provides families with donated furniture and household items. In F2020, the program helped a total of 78 families find housing with average savings of $1,800 per family.

In F2020 Red Door built the Leslieville home, a new shelter to support women, children, and families. For the first time in the shelter's history, each family will have its own bedroom and bathroom. There is also an outdoor play area for children. The tentative move-in date for the shelter was January 2021.

Red Door Family Shelter received donations of $1.3m in F2020. The charity received government funding of $5.4m in F2020 which made up 80% of total revenues in F2020. Administrative costs are 9% of revenues and fundraising costs are 26% of donations. This results in overhead spending of 34%. For every dollar donated, 66 cents go to Red Door’s programs. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. Red Door has funding reserves of $3.7m which could cover 76% or around 9 months of annual program costs.

Charity Intelligence has sent this update to Red Door Family Shelter for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on June 2, 2021, by Shira Wine.