As the holiday season approaches, Blue Door, York Region’s largest emergency housing provider is reaching out to the community to help support vulnerable individuals experiencing homelessness, through financial donations.
While people in the community are wishing for presents, family time, and new experiences, this season, many of your community members have one wish, a home – an apartment, house, or room to rent, four walls and roof to keep them safe during the winter and through the pandemic.
The reality is a home should not be a wish, housing is a basic human right.
Support is urgently needed to provide families and individuals with safe emergency housing, supports to help attain and retain affordable housing, and mental health supports like psychotherapy to learn to cope and heal from trauma.
Donations, big or small, offer life-saving support to youth, men, women, and families experiencing homelessness by providing:
- Emergency and Seasonal housing (Porter Place, Leeder Place, Kevin’s Place, and Mosaic Interfaith Out of the Cold)
- Supportive Housing (Abode, Forward, and INNclusion)
- Health and Wraparound Supports (Housing Retention, On-site volunteer physician, Psychotherapy, In-Reach Worker)
- Employment Opportunities and Training (Construct – A Social Enterprise by Blue Door)
Blue Door’s Chief Executive Officer, Michael Braithwaite weighs in on the need for financial supports,
“In 2020, Blue Door was lucky to be supported with donations to keep people facing homelessness safe during the pandemic, these donations saved lives and our team is incredibly grateful. The reality is that thousands of people are still struggling, experiencing employment loss, addictions, mental health challenges and homelessness. Financial donations give Blue Door the opportunity to continue to innovate and manage programs that not only support those who are already experiencing homelessness, but also invest in programs that target prevention, like our social enterprise, Construct”.
Financial donations are most beneficial at this time and Blue Door has an online Gift Guide where community members can select specific gifts they would like to purchase or donate funds for.
The Gift Guide can be accessed here: Blue Door’s Gift Guide