Rebuilding Lives

The Fred Victor holiday display at the Distillery Winter Village, Toronto. supplied

Fred Victor wants GTA residents to Picture a Toronto Where Everyone Has a Home

When Carlos lost his job, he also lost his home and found himself living on Toronto’s unforgiving streets.

“During my times on the streets, I felt a level of desperation I never thought I would experience. It was a dark and lonely place,” he recalls.

Carlos turned to Fred Victor, a Toronto charity focused on ending homelessness, for help. The programs and services he was able to access through Fred Victor enabled him to find a job and move into one of the charity’s affordable housing units. He is one of Fred Victor’s many success stories.

To help others like Carlos, the 128-year-old organization’s campaign for the giving season urges people living in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) to Picture a Toronto Where Everyone Has a Home – and help Fred Victor work toward that goal.

“We have pictures of our family, our holidays, of people in places we love, on our walls. But if you don’t have a home, you don’t have those pictures,” says Marie MacCormack, vice president, Philanthropy & Communications at Fred Victor.

The campaign profiles the stories of some of the people – like Carlos – Fred Victor has helped move to secure housing. While the coverage of homelessness and the housing affordability crisis could make people think it is an insurmountable problem, Ms. MacCormack says Fred Victor makes small gains every day, helping people go from the street to shelter and ultimately to some form of affordable housing.

“It could be owned and operated by Fred Victor or another agency, or by Toronto Community Housing, or maybe it’s just a room in a shared situation, but at least it is somewhere to call your own, where you can close your door and have a place to rest and put your things,” she says.

The giving season is a time of caring and sharing, but some people have never experienced the true joy of making a donation, says Ms. MacCormack, who adds that Fred Victor serves more than 3,000 people every day.

“If you’ve never done it, try it,” she says, adding that between 20 and 40 per cent of Canadians – who have the capacity – have never made a donation.

Ms. MacCormack says every year Fred Victor’s fundraising team has to work harder to raise the same amount of money that it did the year before.

“The need is greater than ever; our shelters are overcapacity every night and the need for food far exceeds what we can provide, but please don’t get overwhelmed and give up. It’s thanks to thousands of caring people who step up and offer support that organizations like Fred Victor can help people rebuild their lives.”

Learn more: helprebuildlives.ca

To view this report on The Globe's website, visit globeandmail.com

To view the full report as it appeared in The Globe's print edition The Giving Season