Today I accompanied a friend of mine to an apartment viewing here in London. He has been homeless, sleeping wherever he can, for about a month now. We’ve spent a ton of time looking for bachelor apartments. Living with a house mate(s) has just been too hard for him in the past. While looking on various websites all month, this was the cheapest place we could find. $750/month plus hydro. You might have noticed that there is less than a few inches total of counter space in the kitchen… And, oh ya, the kitchen is also the living room, dining room and bedroom. Everything jammed into a 10’x12′ space.
My friend is on ODSP. The maximum shelter allowance is $489/month, meaning most of his personal needs allowance would need to go towards his shelter costs too. But to make matters worse, they won’t even look at his application unless he has a co-signer.
With shelter’s full, there simply aren’t any other options. So unless my friend can find a co-signer, it’s going to be a long, cold winter.
This is why items like sleeping bags, warm dry socks, coffee shop gift cards and hot homemade soup are so important to our community.
Do you have someone on your gift list that already has everything? Would you consider using that person’s gift to bless our friends with one or two of the items from our Christmas Gift Catalog? Check out our website for more information!