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Good people wanted

I’m smart, affectionate and homeless.

My friend Karen is trying to find a good home for a homeless cat she’s befriended. She writes: “This cat has been hanging around our office here at the corner of Bank and Gilmour for over a month now. He’s smart, affectionate and homeless. I’ve taken to feeding him […]

Yummy Little Tidbits

Here are a couple of yummy little tidbits of upcoming fun.

Burlesque Life Drawing Comes to Ottawa!
When many artists think “life drawing,” they think of sterile rooms,
bad lighting, and bored, silent, models with nary a hint of
personality. Dr. Sketchy’s Anti Art School is here to change all
that.

Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School is the little New York […]

A novel approach: Doing what works

Years ago, when my criminology degree was fresh, I did a volunteer stint as a court worker for the Ottawa Elizabeth Fry Society. My job, one morning a week, was to show up at First Appearance Court, keep an eye out for women who looked like they needed some help, and try to match them […]

Homeless Hope Garden Party

Shepherds of Good Hope Garden

The Shepherds of Good Hope has a community garden plot, just like ours only much bigger and much much better organized It’s out at the Kilborn Allotment Garden. They grow food there for the soup kitchen.

When I volunteered at Shepherds, there was usually enough food to go […]

Last Shift at Shepherds

If you’ve ever driven past the Shepherds of Good Hope, on Murray Street near King Edward, you might have felt a little intimidated by the clusters of ragged street people who live on the fringes of society and who congregate outside the shelter. Some of them smoke and talk amongst themselves. Some talk to themselves. […]

Kindness Meters?

Don’t you just love how Mayor Larry comes up with all these facile ‘solutions’ to complex problems? Scrap the crack kit program to get rid of addicts. Bribe the competition to bypass democracy. Install “Kindness Meters” to eliminate panhandlers.

The Kindness Meters, if you haven’t heard, are refurbished parking meters, now being used as the […]

The Mayor and Me at the Homelessness Forum

Somehow the Mayor and I ended up at the same community forum today. I stayed all day, while he just made an appearance. Too bad: there was much he could have learned, since homelessness is one of his more conspicuous areas of ignorance.

The Mayor said some nice things about the work of the Alliance […]

Mental Health and Homelessness

Earlier this week I wrote a post about a mentally ill homeless woman in Westboro. Several commenters and I mulled over how she could best be helped. (Followed, sadly, by another commenter who declared the woman to be a crazy bitch who should be overpowered and locked up forever.)

Coincidentally, two days later, The Canadian […]

Signs, bedbugs and homelessness

I’m a sign-reader. I can’t pass a post that has signage without at least glancing at it. I’m particuarly drawn to signs of the non-professional genre. Handwritten signs are my favourite, then photocopied handwritten signs, then home computer signs. Big multi-coloured professionally-designed signs don’t really interest me.

Lately there have been an awful lot of […]