“Of course we need shelters for homeless men . . . Just not anywhere near my house.”
That’s the header on the City of Toronto’s website, thanks to a campaign sponsored in partnership with the Toronto Alliance to End Homelesssness.
The campaign poses the question, “Which Toronto do we want to be?” Are we ready to let go of discrimination and the defensive refrain, “I’m not NIMBY, I just don’t think this is the right place for these [fill in the blank].” Are we ready to draw on our best selves, and be the Toronto where everyone is included, and no-one gets left behind?
In embedding this campaign in the City’s Toronto For All series, the City draws the parallel with two other forms of discrimination: Anti-Black Racism and Islamophobia. It also provides good factual information and challenges some of the myths about homelessness, including perhaps the most pervasive myth of all: “homeless people are different from me.”
A Toronto where everyone belongs
HomeComing was founded on the insight that when we say, “We don’t want these people in my neighbourhood,” it is not consultation. It is not free speech. It is discrimination. It’s a message the Toronto for All campaign makes loud and clear.
Ready to keep the conversation going, and bring forward real solutions to ending homelessness?
- Visit the Toronto Alliance to End Homelessness website
- Follow TAEH on Twitter: @TAEHomelessness
- Like and follow their Facebook page: The Toronto Alliance To End Homelessness
- Take a picture with one of the campaign ads on bus shelters or posters and show your support
- Make your own “Your Welcome in My Community” buttons. Download HomeComing’s artwork
- Join with your neighbours whenever a shelter comes to your neighbourhood to say, “Yes-in-My-Backyard.”
