The recent chorus from Chinatown’s local business association is clear — no new homeless youth centres in our neighbourhood. On Tuesday, about 50 demonstrators marched from the Chinatown Centre to city hall chanting “save Chinatown!” and holding placards saying “No YSM,” the acronym for Yonge Street Mission, a long-established social service agency that plans to relocate its growing youth day programs to a site on Spadina Avenue next year.

The Chinatown Business Improvement Area, which represents local merchants, says youth who use the facility will harm their businesses and cause trouble. One BIA member told hundreds gathered at a recent press conference that although Chinatown is not perfect, “we don’t need any more grit.” YSM has already bought the building and, barring something unforeseen, the agency will open in Chinatown. The real challenge now is in healing some of the pain caused by this unfortunate situation.

Chinatown is currently plastered with hundreds of photocopied flyers saying “No YSM here.” Homeless youth who walk the streets see this every day. It is an explicit reminder, to go along with all of the tacitly understood ones, that many would rather not live, work, or shop near people who use local shelters, drop-ins and food programs. I no longer experience this social stigma in my daily life, but I have lingering memories of it from my early days in Toronto.

When I first came to the city in 2004 I had no money, no job, no apartment, and tons of pride. After living in the spare rooms and basements of friends, I ran out of cash and decided to stay in a local men’s shelter while I saved up for my own place. Over the following months, I struggled to keep my own apartment, and spent a good deal of my time with no fixed address. When I wasn’t working my minimum wage jobs for a temp agency, I would simply roam the streets.

I soon learned about specific services for youth, including a drop-in centre named YOUTHLINK: Inner City, which was located just steps from the Chinatown Centre. Inner City was a place to stay warm, to read the newspaper and most importantly, to connect with youth outreach staff and public health nurses, to have a shower and a snack, to just be, away from the gaze of a critical and unsupportive public. I got my first real job there as a part-time peer worker, then as a full-time employee.

When I walk around Chinatown, Queen Street West and Yonge Street today, I still see some of the people I hung out with at Inner City, or bunked with at local shelters. For any number of reasons that are too complex to cite here, not all my friends became newspaper columnists with stable housing. Nevertheless, we still share a bond arising from that shared experience of struggle. We still say hi and make small talk.

Before my own experiences, I used to think that people on the street needed jobs, housing, education, rehab, legal help. Many do. But I found that need for community and belonging is one of the biggest challenges of being on the street.

Some locals at the Chinatown BIA protest told me their kids are all in university and don't need a drop-in centre. Even if that is true, the city estimates that 1,500 to 2,000 youth have no permanent home every night. They hang out downtown where services and shelters are concentrated, and they need support and community, just as I did.

Johnny Walker Kwok, a sweet man who helped to organize Tuesday's protest, told me that although residents and business owners are worried about the impact of YSM on tourism and business, “we support the organization, and many of us have even donated to it.” If he and the hundreds, maybe thousands, of locals who oppose the new YSM location knew that an open heart is at least as good as an open wallet, might they soften their tone?

A letter from the Chinatown BIA to Mayor John Tory and city council is asking for a ban on soup kitchens and shelters in all designated tourist areas. “We have the same passion and heart for the homeless youth” as YSM does, the letter nevertheless argues. In that light, I hope residents and businesses will consider new ways to address the arrival of a youth drop-in to Chinatown. They can begin by taking down those posters.

Desmond Cole is a Toronto-based journalist. His column appears every Thursday.