On April 18, 2007 the Atkinson Charitable Foundation and Between the Lines celebrated the launch of the new book "Dying for a Home: Homeless Activists Speak Out" by Cathy Crowe. The book highlights former homeless Torontonians, ODSP and OW Recipients Nancy Baker, Brian Boyd, Bonnie and Kerre Briggs, Kevin Clarke, "The Colonel", "Dri", James Kagoshima, Marty Lang,
and Melvin Tipping. The launch event had a big write-up in the Toronto Star.
About the book: Cathy Crowe always wanted to be a nurse, but she never planned to be a Street Nurse; a title she continues to use to evoke the horror of homelessness in a rich country like Canada. The contents of Crowe's nursing portfolio reveal the hard truth of her specialty: street nursing. Her vitamins will not prevent the white plague of TB, the duct tape to fix a cardboard shelter or the bus ticket to get an elderly man to a hot air grate will not ensure a peaceful night of safety and sleep. Crowe's experience has taught her that the only thing homeless people have in common is being de- housed and forced to live in conditions of poverty.
It is this first-hand experience with the disgrace of homelessness that turned her into a housing advocate and introduced her to the ten contributors to "Dying For A Home."
In Dying For A Home Crowe brings to life the normally unheard voices of ten homelessness activists advocating for change. The word homeless conjures many stereotypes, but rarely does it suggest bravery, courage, charisma, or intel' ligence; qualities demonstrated by each of these determined individuals. Crowe provides the public with a rare opportunity to meet these extraordinary activists, many of whom have lived on the street for over a decade. They show this epidemic of homelessness to be an unnatural disaster, a disaster of our own making. In this groundbreaking book, Crowe invites ten formally homeless Canadians to tell their stories, and together they reveal how we can work towards an equitable future. Now, with a quarter of a million Canadians either homeless, or disgracefully underhoused, homelessness is no longer our national secret.
CATHY CROWE is a Street Nurse in downtown Toronto and has worked in the area of homelessness for over eighteen years. Along with colleagues, she co-founded the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee (TDRC), which in 1998 declared homelessness a national disaster. Cathy is a current recipient of the Atkinson Charitable Foundation's Economic Justice Award |
