Founded in 1989, Eva’s Initiatives for Homeless Youth (Eva’s) works to address and prevent youth homelessness through providing shelter services, youth programs, and transitional housing for youth aged 16-24. By fulfilling short-term needs and working to address the root causes of homelessness, Eva’s hopes that eventually all youth will have a place to sleep. 

Eva’s Initiatives runs two shelters for homeless youth. Eva’s Place is an emergency shelter with 40 beds. This location houses the Family Reconnect program and works with psychiatrists to address residents’ mental health needs. Eva’s Satellite is the second emergency shelter. This location has 33 beds and operates the Harm Reduction program for youth with substance abuse issues. The program provides counseling, education on safer drug use, and access to safe drug supplies. In F2020, Eva’s shelters housed 617 people.  

Eva’s Family Reconnect program helps youth reconnect with their families to prevent them from becoming homeless. In F2020, 158 youth were part of the program. 

Eva’s runs education, life skills, and employment training programs for youth at its shelters. In F2020 it ran 633 life skills training sessions on financial literacy and healthy living. 15 youth participated in graphic communications and print technology training and 75 took part in the employment program.  

Eva’s Phoenix is an independent living shelter where homeless youth can live for a year in an apartment-style space. In F2020, 116 youth lived at Eva’s Phoenix.  

Eva’s ran its YOUth belong independent housing program for the first time in F2020 with 24 youth. This program gives independent transitional housing and housing bursaries to black youth. 

During covid-19, 64 youth were moved from shelters to a hotel to allow for better social distancing. In total, Eva’s Initiatives housed 821 young people in F2020. 

Eva’s Initiatives for Homeless Youth received donations of $4.9m in F2020. The charity received $9.5m in government funding, principally from the City of Toronto for per diem shelter. This government funding represents 64% of total revenues.  

Administrative costs are 10% of revenues (excluding investment income) and fundraising costs are 19% of donations. This means overhead costs are 30%. For every dollar donated, 70 cents go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. 

Eva’s has $5.1m in funding reserves which could cover program costs for six months. This indicates a need for funding. 

Charity Intelligence has sourced Eva's government funding from its T3010 filing as this financial information is not disclosed separately in Eva's audited financial statements.  

This charity report is an update that has been sent to Eva’s Initiatives for Homeless Youth for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming. 

Updated on August 17, 2021 by Asha McMullin.