In Ottawa, youth homelessness is rising at an alarming pace. Over the past three years alone, Operation Come Home has seen a 50 per cent increase in demand, growing from roughly 500 youth served annually to 750. At the same time, more young people are entering the system and fewer are exiting it, becoming stuck in cycles of housing instability.
The causes are complex but deeply interconnected. Rising rents and housing costs are forcing families into crisis, increasing conflict at home and, in many cases, pushing young people out. For youth, family conflict remains the leading cause of homelessness.
With these realities in mind, our team at Partners for Affordable Housing chatted with John Heckbert, Executive Director at Operation Come Home, to better understand what is happening on the ground and what solutions are needed now.
About Operation Come Home
Founded in 1971 in Ottawa by Reverend Norman Johnston, Operation Come Home began with a simple but urgent mission: to help runaway youth return home safely. Today, that mission has evolved to meet a much broader and more complex need.
Operation Come Home supports youth aged 16 to 29 who are experiencing or are at risk of homelessness. Through programs focused on housing, employment, education and wraparound supports, the organization meets young people where they are and helps them build stable, independent futures.
Programs such as HousingWorks includes supports such as a guarantor for youth tenants, helping them secure and maintain housing in an increasingly competitive and expensive market.
How is the housing crisis affecting youth in Ottawa?
“Increases to rents or the challenges around securing affordable housing have a direct impact,” Heckbert said. “There are many people, families and young people who have lost their housing because of inability to pay rent.”
But the impacts extend beyond affordability alone. Financial strain intensifies family conflict, which remains the leading driver of youth homelessness.
Many young people are leaving home not by choice, but because of escalating tensions. “When financial pressures happen in the family, conflict rises. It gets more serious and more entrenched.”
The result is a system under pressure, with more young people entering and fewer able to move on to stable housing.
What does eviction prevention look like in practice?
For organizations like Operation Come Home, eviction prevention is embedded in day-to-day work.
Through its HousingWorks program, the organization leases units from landlords and sublets them to youth, acting as a guarantor to reduce barriers to access. However, maintaining that housing is often the greater challenge.
This is where flexible funding becomes critical.
“The real power is actually in the emergency financial assistance that helps with utilities arrears or other housing-related costs,” Heckbert noted.
He shared an example of a young tenant who suddenly faced a $300 hydro bill after a heating issue in her building. “What does impact young people’s ability to maintain their housing are these emergency or urgent expenses that come up that they just cannot deal with.”
These moments of crisis are often the tipping point and addressing them quickly can mean the difference between stability and homelessness. With timely intervention, the situation was stabilized.
Why the Tenant Stability Fund matters
Heckbert believes the Tenant Stability Fund can be a game-changer. In Ottawa alone, the scale of the housing crisis is striking. There are nearly 700 families experiencing homelessness, including more than 1,700 children. In fact, there are more children than there are adults in the city’s homelessness system.
Many are living in hotel rooms or shelters without access to basic amenities. “Can you raise a family without a kitchen or a washing machine? I do not see how that is possible,” he remarked.
The Tenant Stability Fund can offer a different path by intervening early, before housing is lost. Rather than responding after a crisis has already occurred, it equips organizations to act in real time, helping people stay housed and maintain the stability they have worked to achieve.
For Heckbert, the value of this approach is clear. “Helping somebody stabilize in their housing is so valuable if they are still housed… An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
Why flexibility and speed are critical in the context of tenant stability
One of the defining features of the Partners for Affordable Housing Tenant Stability Fund is its flexibility. For frontline organizations, this is essential.
“The crucial thing is that we can deploy tenant stability funds quickly without a huge amount of burden on the person applying,” Heckbert noted.
In moments of housing crisis, time matters. Waiting weeks for support can mean the difference between remaining housed and being evicted.
This flexibility also allows organizations like Operation Come Home to respond to the full range of costs that impact housing stability, from rent arrears to unexpected damages. In doing so, it helps protect existing housing stock and prevent further loss of units.
What funders and policy makers need to understand
Heckbert emphasized that the economics of housing instability are often misunderstood.
“It is hugely expensive to have people enter the homelessness system. It is also hugely expensive to build new social housing. However, it is way less expensive to help people maintain their existing housing.”
He outlined the contrast in costs: Supporting a young person in housing through Operation Come Home costs roughly $14,000 per year, compared to about $38,000 for one shelter bed per year.
Beyond cost, the difference in dignity and outcomes is significant. Maintaining existing affordable housing units allows individuals to retain privacy, stability and a sense of home, rather than facing the uncertainty and limitations of shelter environments.
The broader impact: prevention beyond housing
Heckbert highlighted the connection between homelessness and human trafficking, noting that many individuals are drawn into exploitation due to a lack of economic options.
“The majority of people that are involved in or victimized by human trafficking are in that state because they don’t have other economic options. Some are in the homelessness system because they were economically coerced, and they did not have any other options for themselves,” he explained.
Addressing housing instability early helps prevents these outcomes and supports overall well-being.
The human impact behind the numbers
Photo by Bruce Deachman/POSTMEDIA
Behind what we see in the data are real stories unfolding every day.
As reported by Bruce Deachman in the Ottawa Citizen, Idris Isse experienced the difficult realities faced by many youth navigating homelessness in Ottawa.
Through Operation Come Home’s HousingWorks program, Idris was able to access stable housing, an experience that changed the trajectory of his life.
“If I did not have this Master Leasing, if I did not have Operation Come home, I’d be a goner,” said Isse. “I’d be dead in a ditch.”
With that stability, he has been able to begin building toward the future, gaining work experience through the organization’s FoodWorks social enterprise. His story reflects what is possible when the right supports are in place at the right time.
Moving forward
The Tenant Stability Fund is designed to support this work. By equipping community organizations with flexible, rapid funding, it helps stabilize housing, prevent eviction and reduce the human and financial costs of homelessness.
To learn more about the Tenant Stability Fund or to explore how your organization can get involved, connect with us today.