Maisha and her young son arrived to Canada from Kenya, a little over one year ago in September 2023.
For six months following their arrival to Toronto, the family bounced around between temporary living situations across the city including acquaintances’ sofas, shelter basements, 129 Peter Street (Toronto’s Homelessness Assessment and Referral Centre), immigration offices and hotels before finally being referred to an available room at Christie Refugee Welcome Centre.
Arriving to Christie, one of the few refugee houses in Toronto, was like winning the lottery, Maisha describes.
“We spent Christmas at the hotel, New Years, and then came February and I got the golden call [from the City of Toronto’s Homelessness Assessment and Referral Centre] that a shelter space had been found for us at Christie,” Maisha explains.
Maisha’s family was one of many families who arrived to Christie Refugee Welcome Centre in early 2024 after having spent months living in hotels due to the lack of available shelter space across the City of Toronto. When shelter space is unavailable, hotels, often scattered across Etobicoke and Scarborough, are paid through funds issued to homeless refugee claimant families by social assistance. Almost always, very little money is left to cover the cost of food and other basic needs as refugee claimant families eke out a living from a hotel room, for months.
“When we stayed there, we worried what we were going to be eating. I was told there was a Food Bank across the street,” explains Maisha adding that during her first week at the hotel, she and her son ate only fruits.
Maisha explains there are so many things she has been grateful for since arriving to Christie. Cooked meals, separate beds for each family member, basic needs items upon arrival, support with school registration and school supplies for her son and medical care to name a few.
“I’ve been to other countries [where refugees] start from zero. It’s not like here. Christie’s Child and Family Worker helped me to change my son’s school and gave me school supplies for him; it was awesome. When my son went to school that first day, I slept a sleep of relief and from there I’ve been taking it one day at a time.”
“Nothing good comes easy. Sometimes I’m down not because of integrating but because of my past hurts that I’m still healing. I’m trying just to recover and heal and move on.