Knox Dinner and Food Bank for Homeless Street Youth

The Roots of the Knox Youth Dinner & Food Bank
Formerly:  Knox Toronto – First Nations Gospel Assembly – Out of the Cold Program

Many people ask me just what types of programs and services, other than our nightly street sandwich runs to the homeless, that Project417  operates in Toronto. One of the most amazing programs in [...]

A Girl Named R

A friend recently told me that people who want to help the homeless are interested in reading more personal stories about those who are experiencing homelessness.  They didn’t know I’ve been posting stories about many of the homeless people we serve at Project417 for several years. It comes with the territory of being a [...]

Join the #Whyhomeless Movement – Help the Homeless

Visit Part 1 of the series at this short url -
http://bit.ly/19vTNG
Welcome to the continuing series exploring the root causes of homelessness. This is the #whyhomeless movement. A grassroots social action group committed to alleviating the challenges faced by people who are experiencing homelessness. Based in Toronto, but pursuing a worldwide issue,  we think global, but [...]

What do you think is the root cause of homelessness? Part 5

Visit Part 1 of the series at this short url –
http://tinyurl.com/whyhomeless

In my last post I said:
We need to re-visit the issue of the root causes of homelessness and use our findings to publicly articulate an actionable plan to reduce homelessness. We need to wrest control of the issues from interest groups and some activist [...]

What do you think is the root cause of homelessness? – Part 4

Visit Part 1 of the series at this short url –
http://tinyurl.com/whyhomeless

A Call to Action:
In Parts 1 to 3 of the series, we have investigated the root cause of homelessness.  I mentioned the need to decide upon a definition of homelessness.  I’d like to postpone that for a short time because there is a window [...]

What do you think is the root cause of homelessness? – Part 3

Homelessness – The Root Causes – Part III
In Part I & Part II,  I have been asking the question – “What do you think is the root cause of homelessness?”  (Join the movement – tweet your answers on Twitter with the tag #whyhomeless).  I pointed out that -
The right to housing is a basic human [...]

What do you think is the root cause of homelessness? Part 2

Read – What do you think is the root cause of homelessness? Part I
Homelessness – The Root Causes – Part II

In Part I of the series, I shared the results of informal surveys of volunteers over the last few years of what people think is the root cause of homelessness. It’s important to address this [...]

What do you think is the root cause of homelessness?

Homelessness – The Root Causes – Part I
Several nights a week I travel the the downtown streets of Toronto with groups of volunteers delivering bag lunch meals to the homeless. We call it a Sandwich Run – each bag lunch contains a sandwich, an apple, a snack like a granola bar or rice crispy square [...]

Homeless prefer grassroots Out of the Cold program versus city run shelters

It’s spring right? I mean it’s getting warmer right?  Well, I don’t know about where you live, but here in Toronto there has been a dearth of fine spring weather. We’ve had more than our share it seems of unseasonably cold weather, especially cold, blustery winds and the perennial April showers. Most of us, we [...]

Street Artist depicts Toronto homeless

I was contacted by a family friend last week,  Dan Bergeron. Dan has been commissioned by the ROM – the ROM is holding an exhibition over the next few months to showcase street art that depicts the lives of the street homeless, the struggle for affordable housing and to commemorate Toronto’s Tent City. The project, [...]