As Toronto’s city-run shelter system bulges with refugees and migrants, volunteer-run Out of the Cold programs are operating at capacity and wondering when governments are going to get serious about housing.
Once homeless, addicted, Hilarie Fortune now part of Edmonton parish's outreach to poor
EDMONTON – A single mother, without a home, sits in a McDonald’s restaurant on Edmonton’s Whyte Avenue strip.
Helping the poor is duty, not a fad, Pope Francis says
Need, hope grows as Out of the Cold digs in to help the homeless
In 2006, after 20 years of stellar work with the Out of the Cold program to shelter the homeless, its co-founder was not impressed.
Editorial: Listen for the poor
It is noble to mark the World Day of the Poor with gifts of charity, but Pope Francis has challenged Catholics to go much further than that. He asks us to observe Nov. 18 by making a serious examination of conscience “to see if we are truly capable of hearing the cry of the poor.”
Vincentians raising profile in battle against poverty
When Pope Francis initiated the World Day of the Poor to be marked on the 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time — Nov. 18 this year — it was easy for people to see this targeted at the familiar pictures that are all too real of Third World poverty.
Joe Gunn: Strategy to eradicate Canadian poverty needs an action plan
The world commemorated the United Nations’ International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on Oct. 17, but you could be forgiven for not noticing.
Luke Stocking: Inspiring words offer a simple message
ISARC makes their case for welfare reform
As Ontario Minister of Children, Community and Social Services Lisa MacLeod gets set to reveal her welfare reform package on Nov. 8, the people who run Ontario’s food banks, shelters and volunteer supports for poor families are urging the provincial government to restore the basic income pilot project.
Helping 5.8 million Canadians out of poverty isn’t a charity project. It’s about building a better economy and living up to the human rights we proclaim as a nation, said the author of a new report on poverty.
Church on the street: Secrets of street reveal pain… and joy
The summer had been warm and humid, and unlike many churches that can afford air conditioning, the church on the street had to find its own way of surviving the muggy evenings.
Housing just part of the answer to fight poverty
Pope praises Capuchin order's apostolate of confession, simplicity
VATICAN – Capuchins are called to be men of peace, reconciliation and prayer and to be close to all people, Pope Francis told members of the order.