Youth-led · Toronto, Ontario
Nobody chooses to sleep on the street.
Students4Shelter is a student-run community that raises money for Toronto shelters and collects the stories of the people living in them — because behind every statistic is a person with a name, a history and a reason they ended up without roof over their head.
Why shelters need us
This is a housing emergency, not a personal failure.
Toronto shelters are running past capacity while funding stays flat. These are the numbers we bring to open your eyes on the current crisis in our community.
- 286+deaths
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average annual mortality rate of individuals experiencing homelessness in Toronto
That is roughly six people every week. Cold exposure, untreated illness and overdose are the leading causes, and almost all of them are preventable with shelter and care.
- 1 in 5are youths
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of Toronto’s homeless population is a young person
Thousands of youth cycle through couches, cars and shelter beds every year. Most left home to escape violence, family breakdown or being kicked out for who they are.
- ~11,000each night
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people rely on Toronto’s shelter system every single night
The system was never built for this capacity. Beds fill up by early evening, and when emergency warming shelters open, they are filled within munites, leaving individuals to find a place for themselves.
- 80+turned away daily
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calls for a shelter bed go unfulfilled on an average night
When Central Intake has nothing left to offer, homeless individuals are left to figure out for themselves in a transit shelter, stairwell or a ravine.
Figures are approximate and compiled from City of Toronto Shelter, CBC News, and Radio Canada. We will try to update them as new counts are published.
Our Mission
Students4Shelter is a youth-led community dedicated to humanizing homelessness and empowering the next generation of advocates. We strive to break systemic barriers and provide immediate aid to local shelters through collective youth action.
What we actually do
Money in shelter hands, and stories in people’s heads.
Funding alone does not end homelessness — indifference keeps it going. So we work on both ends at once: immediate aid for the shelters that need it tonight, and a long-term shift in how our city talks about their own people.
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Fundraise with real events
Bake sales, winter drives and donations run entirely by students. Every dollar goes to real shelters.
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Humanize Homelessness
We visit people living in shelters, record their stories and publish them as short films and written portraits on our social media.
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Build The Next Advocates
Offer volunteering opportunities and create programs where youths can learn how housing policies actually works, homeless crisis, and teach them how to be part of the real solution.
Upcoming events
Show up, and bring your enthusiam to change the world!
Every event is planned and run by students. Volunteer hours count toward your community service requirement, and we will sign your form.
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Coming soon
Have suggestions for events?
Email us at students4shelter@gmail.com to give us your event ideas!
Donate
Fund a bed, a meal, or a warm night.
One hundred percent of donations go directly to our Toronto shelter partners and helping run Students4Shelter.
Tax receipts are issued through our registered shelter partners.