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Ordinary People, Extraordinary Advocacy: Mobilizing for Housing in Halton

An exploration of the everyday citizens pushing for action


A picture of a neighbour sleeping outside in Burlington, ON. Source: Jerry Fairbridge
A picture of a neighbour sleeping outside in Burlington, ON. Source: Jerry Fairbridge


Across Halton, a quiet but determined movement is growing. It’s not led by celebrities or large institutions, it’s led by ordinary residents. People like Karen Hicks. People like Jerry Fairbridge. Citizens who refuse to accept homelessness as inevitable, and who are transforming concern into action.


The Moment That Changes You

When I asked Karen Hicks why she cares so deeply about housing, she didn’t begin with policy or statistics. She told a story.


As a young girl living in the countryside in the UK, Karen remembers a man who would often visit her family home. He wasn’t a friend or neighbour, but someone who was hungry. Her family would offer him tea and bread, a small act of care that became routine.


One day, Karen was home alone, in the bath, when the man let himself in. Hungry and familiar with the household, he helped himself to food. When her brother arrived and saw him, he called the police. Karen watched as the man was arrested and taken away.


After that, everything changed.


“He got rid of the cup and plate,” Karen recalls of her father. The quiet ritual of care ended.


That moment stayed with Karen. Not because she was afraid, but because she understood something deeper: she was not the one in distress. He was.


It was Karen’s first realization of how complicated homelessness can be, how quickly compassion can turn into fear, and how easily people in need can be pushed further away.


Small Acts, Real Impact


Today, Karen lives in Halton, where her early experience has grown into sustained, everyday action.


She talks to people experiencing homelessness wherever she encounters them, at Walmart, at Tim Hortons, on the street. She learns their names. She listens. She celebrates progress, noticing when someone’s face fills out again after finding stability, or when a familiar face carries a renewed sense of hope.


“If we work in small ways,” she says, “we can make it better.”


Karen is part of a church group that meets monthly to talk about issues requiring collective compassion, including housing. Together, they’ve signed petitions, discussed advocacy strategies, and tried to bring political representatives into the conversation.


But her work has also exposed the limits of individual action.


When she hears about someone struggling to find a room or navigate the services, she describes that, “my hands feel tied,”. Those moments reinforce what she now believes strongly: care must be paired with advocacy.


“We need Queen’s Park involved,” says Karen.


Homelessness Is Not an Option

For Jerry Fairbridge, that call to action has taken the form of organized advocacy. His words capture both the human reality and the urgency of the issue:


Where someone slept on Guelph Line. Source: Jerry Fairbridge
Where someone slept on Guelph Line. Source: Jerry Fairbridge

Homelessness is not an option

(by Jerry Fairbridge)

She looked lost; about 20, slim, pretty, huddled in an empty doorway at Burlington’s Rosedale Plaza. A cart beside her with a bag of day-old bagels and a few possessions. I gave her money and walked away. She still haunts me.


Then there was a young pair collecting bottles in Drury Lane, brother and sister or partners. A middle-aged woman who slept in a bus shelter at Central Park and others sleeping outside the library or on park benches. An older man looking lost near McDonald’s. When I gave him money and told him to buy himself a coffee, he asked if I wanted to join him. Cowardly, I made excuses.


In 2022, 78 400 people lived in poverty in Halton (Community Development Halton, January 2025). Canada’s emergency response benefits during the pandemic lowered this number, but it shot up when these benefits ended. Child poverty dropped to 8.9% in 2020 but increased to 12.6% by 2022 (Community Development Halton, February 2025).


There are kids aging out of social support programs, who are falling instantly into poverty when they cross 18. Single parents, both men and women but more often women, are also experiencing poverty. Older adults who lose a partner at any age or lose income are experiencing poverty. Many of us, it seems, are just a tenuous pay cheque or two away from eviction. Once out on the street, with housing costs where they are, it is almost impossible to get back in. Social assistance and the minimum wage at their current levels cover a fraction of the cost of shelter. Landlords move tenants out so they can renovate and raise the rent. Halton has more than its share of renters and they are vulnerable because of the lack of rental housing. Also vulnerable are newcomers, the elderly and those with mental health complications.


The 2019 Canadian National Housing Act Strategy Act proclaimed that the right to adequate housing is a fundamental human right, however years later we have more than 80 000 homeless people in Ontario and many more living below the poverty line (Association of Municipalities of Ontario, 2025). Responsibility is spread between too many ministers, too many levels of government, and too many agencies. Our system is conducive to downloading and pointing fingers of blame. Politicians will do that until we show them forcefully that housing for all is a priority.


Ontario, incidentally, is the only province that has downloaded the responsibility for social housing to municipalities (Association of Municipalities of Ontario, 2025).


Faith communities are searching for answers. Representatives of several Burlington and Oakville churches met in early 2025 and set up what they called Halton Faith Advocates. We heard about individual churches giving food, vouchers, and supplies and visiting encampments. One church was visiting a family living in a car after the father lost his job.


There’ve been many follow-up meetings since then. We wrote letters to politicians and started circulating a petition to go to the Ontario government titled Homelessness is Not an Option. Members of the group started attending council meetings where supportive and affordable housing was being discussed. We met with politicians to argue for a concerted effort to provide a permanent roof for all. That will happen only when voters make noise.


What can we do?

The Halton faith communities are continuing the conversation. They’ve brought on board people who were homeless to act as advisors. They went on a day-in-the-life walking tour in the rain to be briefed on where the homeless hide their sleeping spots and where they can get a shower, get clothes, and eat. They started supporting existing volunteer and nonprofit organizations that help and house the unsheltered.


And they learned how to press the issue at election time by writing letters, attending all-candidates meetings and asking questions - though it must be noted that Ontario’s governing Conservative party refused to attend all-candidates meetings before the last election.


The cost to society of homelessness is high. The cost to the homeless is immeasurable.


We have learned this: that we should be outraged and demand better. Politicians will tell us they’re spending $X and there are many priorities. But there’s government money for some odd things and the chronic poverty situation has been left to worsen. Governments want to sweep the unsheltered out of sight, but that is an expensive way to handle homelessness.


Sources for statistics:


Below are sources for more information:


Some recommended readings:

  • Her Name Was Margaret:  Life and Death on the Streets, by Denise Davy

  • Dying For a Home:  Homeless Activists Speak Out, by Cathy Crowe

  • Home Truths: Fixing Canada’s Housing Crisis, by Carolyn Whitzman


Written by: Jerry Fairbridge


From Compassion to Collective Voice

Karen and Jerry’s stories intersect in a powerful way. Karen reminds us that anyone can take the first step, a conversation, a listening ear, a moment of dignity. Jerry reminds us that individual compassion must evolve into collective pressure.


Both understand that homelessness is not caused by individual failure, but by systemic gaps - and that those gaps won’t close without public demand.


Karen puts it simply: “Every little bit that you do is gonna help.”


But she also knows that “little bits” must add up.


A Call to Action

Across Halton, citizens are already mobilizing:

  • Joining community and faith-based advocacy groups

  • Supporting local shelters and outreach organizations

  • Writing to elected officials

  • Attending council and all-candidates meetings

  • Sharing stories that humanize the crisis


The lesson from both Karen and Jerry is clear: you don’t need to be an expert to get involved, you just need to start.


Because homelessness is not someone else’s problem. It’s happening in our plazas, our parks, our neighbourhoods.


And, as this growing movement shows, the path to housing for all begins with ordinary people deciding that enough is enough.


Join the Halton Housing Action Network to contribute to the movement for housing for all in Halton! Visit the Civic Labs page to learn more!

 
 
 
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