Essay

A Portrait of Our Toronto and Its Challenges

Girls Fall Down touches on contemporary urban malaise on many levels. Set in Toronto, Maggie Helwig’s writing transports us around the city like the subway described at the outset of the story – often what we see is not pretty.

Throughout the book, images of the indigent, the mentally ill, the homeless and the afflicted appear and re-appear. Despite the initial despair, the book is ultimately compassionate and hopeful.

One of the main characters, Susie-Paul, is involved with a homeless program based in a church basement. Four friends from the past, Evelyn, Adrian, Alex and Susie-Paul are re-connected there and ultimately help Susie-Paul find and deal with her homeless, schizophrenic twin brother, Derek.

These scenes are based on the author’s real-life involvement with the Out of the Cold, including St. Stephen-in- the-Field Church featured in the book.

How did the Out of the Cold program begin?

In 1987, the students of St. Michael’s College School befriended a homeless man found near the school. Shortly after the relationship began, the man died. This connection impacted the students deeply.

With the guidance of Sister Susan Moran, a Special Education consultant at the school, they discussed what they could do to alleviate homelessness and prevent future tragedies.

Sister Susan’s concern for the poor and homeless led to the opening of the first "Out of the Cold" refuge serving hot meals and donating clothing and groceries to the less fortunate. How wonderful that such a special person connected with the students at that time. Work among the poor and homeless consumes Sister Susan’s time to the present day.

For her incredible determination to alleviate the problems of those less fortunate, including founding the Out of the Cold program, her name was placed in the Order of St. Michael in 2001. This is the highest honour that St. Michael’s College School can bestow on a member of its community.

Inspired by Sister Susan’s endeavours, a variety of faith groups across the city organized private volunteers to run programs in their respective churches and synagogues.

Although seen as a temporary solution, the plan was to have doors opened for one day a week for approximately 23 weeks to provide food, hospitality and a safe refuge to their homeless guests. The idea caught on and now there are 19 various faith groups across Toronto hosting Out of the Cold programs.

How It Grew

In 2003, Dixon Hall, initially a Depression-era soup kitchen, was asked by the City of Toronto to oversee the management of the Out of the Cold programs.

With City funding, host sites staffed with teams of volunteers began to reach out to marginalized individuals to offer a meal and a place to sleep, whether they were housed or homeless.

There are some locations that are not overseen by Dixon Hall. For example, St Stephen's on Bellevue offered a Friday meal and overnight for a number of years as part of the more informal Out of the Cold but stopped offering the overnight option about 10 years ago. The Friday meals continued in the winter months in the St. Stephen’s space but were put on by several different churches.

Maggie Helwig and some friends started offering Friday meals from May to October: Out of the Heat St Thomas’ on Huron Street. This summer program was meant to complement the winter meals at St Stephen's, in which St Thomas' participated.

In 2008, the Friday dinners moved to St Thomas' year-round, where they continue. Volunteers are not just drawn from churches. Trinity College, at U of T, and the students at Royal St. George's College participate as well.

St. Stephen's now serves Saturday and Sunday breakfasts and their space is used by some other groups which offer free or low-cost meals but they are no longer part of the formal Out of the Cold structure.

Out of the Cold Today

The program supports on average 682 overnights per week from mid-November to mid-April, depending on the weather. The dinner programs serve three times the number of overnights.

There are many different ways to get involved. At St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, volunteer crews begin on Sunday afternoon to work on food preparation for 200 guests on Monday evenings. They handle everything from the shopping to cooking, set-up to serving. Jobs range from organizing beds and blankets for stay-overs, to handling the clean-up, and ending with the breakfast crew’s arrival at 5:30 Tuesday morning to serve 100 – 120 meals.

And The Future?

It’s estimated that there are more than 5,000 homeless people in Toronto. And given our uncertain economic times, it looks like the need for these programs will only grow.