Dying for a Home: Homeless Activists Speak Out.

Jeff Karabanow is an assistant professor in the Maritime School of
Social Work at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Cathy Crowe is a dedicated and passionate street nurse working within the trenches of one of Canada’s foremost national disasters—that of homelessness. This is a very touching and honest portrayal of a group of homeless activists, many homeless themselves, working to provide increased resources and better treatment to those “dehoused” or without home. Through various social movements such as the Toronto Disaster Relief Community, these activists have raised the issue of housing and poverty to a national level. In this book, we are provided with a glimpse of 10 activists, and learn a bit about their lives, their families, their experiences growing up, and for many, their narratives of street living. These portraits provide contexts to the primary foundation of the book—no one deserves to live in crowded and unhealthy shelter facilities or “in the rough.” We need a national housing strategy and political will addressing supportive and supported housing options. Tent City provides a solid example of the resilience, strength, and imagination of homeless populations to build a place of belonging, of community, and of shelter.

Peppered throughout the text are activists’ poems, lyrics, and drawings depicting the devastation of street living, the bureaucracy and dehumanization of social service sectors, and the frailty and marginalization of those attempting to survive day in and day out with housing. We enter these worlds and feel their pain—we suffer through their struggles to secure food and shelter, their loss of street friends, their frustrations with social and health care bureaucracies, and their frequent exploitation by police and security forces. To the majority of civil society, these are “dregs of society” and the “forgotten”—however, reading their words, their experiences, their hopes and dreams, we are in the presence of very thoughtful, eloquent, intelligent, and resourceful individuals trying to survive within the harsh neo-liberal political/economic environment, which translates to minimal social safety nets for Canadian citizens.

This book is a very compelling and critical look at our homeless population, our homeless strategies, and those working in the field to enact change.