As Thanksgiving approaches, we reflect on the things we are grateful for in the past year – family, good food, good health (COVID-19 vaccinations!!!), a warm house and what’s good about our world. 

This year, Thanksgiving overlaps with another event, one that hits very close to home for us: Homelessness Action Week – from October 10 to 17.

We need your help to raise $7,500 before midnight on Monday to support community members who are impacted by homelessness and precarious housing and meet their immediate needs like food, shelter, and dignity.

While access to shelter is a basic human need, 35,000 people experience homelessness on any given night in Canada.

For many in the Downtown Eastside community, FIRST is their HOME – a place of shelter, a warm bed, meals and even access to free legal advocacy. We operate a year-round shelter, providing beds each night to support the most vulnerable people in our city, our neighbours with nowhere else to turn.

Our legal advocacy program has been helping community members since the 1970s. We assist renters by filing to dispute unlawful evictions notices and rent increases and apply for repair orders for people living in sub-standard housing conditions.

Did you know we provide up to 6,500 meals per month? We also gave out 9,631 pairs of socks to the community from January to September. While a pair of socks is a small gesture, creature comforts do make a difference.

For Thanksgiving, it would mean a lot if you helped by making a gift in honour of Homelessness Action Week.

Happy Thanksgiving, and warmest blessings to you and your family! Make a donation here!