A group of York students are hard at work trying to bring some comfort to Toronto’s homeless during the bitter cold wintertime through a new initiative called Keep Toronto Warm.
The initiative involves using fundraising money to purchase Special Winter Packages. Each $20 package, which contains a warm pair of socks, a warm blanket, a hot beverage gift card, and a personalized letter from the donor, is handed out to a homeless person on the streets of Toronto.
“The idea was initially sparked by an article I read last year about two homeless individuals that passed away on the streets of Toronto from the cold,” says Omar Salama, founder of Keep Toronto Warm. “Last winter the city had nearly 40 extreme cold weather alerts. I didn’t understand how a city like Toronto could let something like that happen and I wanted to see how I could help out. Things expanded from there.”
Of the six members of the project’s core team, five are York students. Salama, who is a fourth-year graphic design student at York, says the team quickly came together after he casually mentioned the idea to the Residence Life Coordinator at Pond Road Residence, Stephanie Francis.
“I have been lucky enough to have such an amazing support system around me in my residence life team and all the residents in the building that it wasn’t really too difficult to get people involved,” Salama says. “Most people want to give back but just need to be given a chance to do so.”
Once the initiative was set up, the response from the York community and the wider Toronto community was very encouraging.
The story was quickly picked up by the Toronto Sun and the CBC.
“The York community has been very supportive as well,” adds Salama.
Both YFile and the President’s Office have helped get the word about Keep Toronto Warm out into the community.
Even more than public attention, Salama emphasizes the reactions of the homeless as being the running motivation for his team.
“It’s really hard to explain the feeling one gets when you see someone with a huge smile on their face who is constantly thanking you for such a small action that you did,” he says. “We are all trying to have a meaningful interaction when we are distributing the packages.” The packages are distributed in person and one at a time, giving the team an opportunity to really connect with the recipient.
According to the most recent statistics for homelessness in Toronto, which were compiled in 2013, about 5,200 people in the city were classified as being homeless. Looking at the homeless population as a percentage of the city’s total population, Toronto does better than other major Canadian cities, but it still has the most people living on the streets overall. Unlike Calgary, where the rate of homelessness has stopped rising, or Vancouver, where homelessness is reportedly on the decline, the situation in Toronto has only been getting worse since 2009.
Salama recognizes many of the causes of homelessness in Toronto are structural and therefore inherently political. “I never thought that Keep Toronto Warm would ‘solve’ homelessness,” he says.
“Our goal at Keep Toronto Warm is just to try and help in our own little way by providing some extra warmth to those who are on the streets during the harsh winters. We also hope that having organizations like ours will help keep the conversation about homelessness going.”
Hassam Munir, Sports and Health Editor
Featured image courtesy of Omar Salama
