How you can help – today!

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This post is the companion article for our recently published one-pager which you can find online here as a PDF. Each 8.5 x 11 sheet can be cut into three brochures and although it looks nicer in colour you can also print it in black and white. If an image is better for sharing on social media here are links to page 1 and page 2.

For a longer history of NSUN than is shown on the brochure see About Us page.

Saying Hi to your neighbour

Although many members of NSUN have worked in the homelessness sector for years or have lived experience of being unhoused themselves for many of us it was challenging and difficult in the early days of the pandemic to know how to interact appropriately with our neighbours sheltering in the city parks (that is where we did most of our early work). So we understand that you might feel awkward or afraid or scared you’ll say the wrong thing – or a combination of all of these.

There are some tips for how to get better at interactions with folks experiencing homelessness at the Front Steps website and the Mission Old Brewery website. 

But really the best advice is to be humble, human and genuine – think about a time you have felt out of place and maybe a bit leery of other people (maybe your first day on a new job or traveling to a country where you don’t speak the language) and think how you would like to have been treated.

Educate Yourself

There are many, many harmful, inaccurate and persistent myths around homelessness and unhoused people as a group. That it is a choice to be homeless, that all homeless people are mentally ill or addicts (or both) and that homeless people are uniformly violent and are to be feared and avoided at all costs. Even language is difficult – which is the right word to use – homeless or unhoused (we tend to use unhoused because our feeling is that many people do have a home – their tent or tiny home – but they are still unhoused because this living situation does not provide many of the services and features that actual housing would provide and which you likely take for granted – electricity, your own bathroom, cooking facilities and so on).

Learning about homelessness can take many forms – here are some resources available:

Courses and other learning resources

The University of Victoria has a micro-credentialing program called Fundamentals for the Homelessness Serving Sector. This online program consists of 6 modules that when completed will earn you a certificate. There is no cost for the program and it is all online and self-paced. 

Check it out at https://continuingstudies.uvic.ca/health-wellness-and-safety/programs/fundamentals-for-the-homelessness-serving-sector

Canada’s Homelessness Hub has a large directory of learning materials – both training courses and ‘collections’ (groupings of instructional materials, resources, videos, evaluations etc) online that is freely accessible – https://homelessnesslearninghub.ca/

Introduction to homelessness in high-income countries: An open access e-textbook – Nick Falvo https://nickfalvo.ca/book/ 

Non-fiction books about homelessness

  • Rough Sleepers by Tracy Kidder (available from the Greater Victoria Public Library)
  • From the Ashes – Jesse Thistle – “Jesse Thistle is Métis-Cree, from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, and an assistant professor in Humanities at York University in Toronto” – “In this extraordinary and inspiring debut memoir, Jesse Thistle, once a high school dropout and now a rising Indigenous scholar, chronicles his life on the streets and how he overcame trauma and addiction to discover the truth about who he is.” (available from the Greater Victoria Public Library)
  • Souls in the Hands of a Tender God – Craig Rennebohm (with David Paul) – Reflections from a UCC minister who spend over twenty years offering companionship to unhoused community members through the Mental Health Chaplaincy in Seattle
  • Two books from Dr. Josephine Ensign, a professor in the School of Nursing at the University of washington – Catching Homelessness: A Nurse’s Story of Falling Through the Safety Net – and – Skid Road: On the Frontier of Health and Homelessness in an American City
  • Sanctuary: a Meditation on Home, Homelessness, and  Belonging – A short (104 page) meditation on oppression and homelessness from a Zen priest
  • Homelessness: The Making and Unmaking of a Crisis – Jack Layton – For historical context from a Canadian perspective (published in 2000)
  • Tell Them Who I Am – Elliot Liebow – a Classic work from an anthropologist who spent the final years of his life volunteering in women’s shelters in Washington DC.
  • Disrupting Homelessness: Alternative Christian Approaches – Laura Stivers – An analysis  of the response to homelessness from a faith-based lens, written by a professor of philosophy and religion at Dominican University of California.

Fiction/memoir about homelessness

  • Ragged Company – Richard Wagamese – “Ragged Company is a journey into both the future and the past. Richard Wagamese deftly explores the nature of the comforts these friends find in their ideas of “home,” as he reconnects them to their histories.”
  • Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard – “In the vein of The Glass Castle, Breaking Night is the stunning memoir of a young woman who at age fifteen was living on the streets, and who eventually made it into Harvard.” –
  • The Man in the Dog Park offers the reader a rare window into homeless life
  • A Knapsack Full of Dreams: Memoirs of a Street Nurse – by Cathy Crowe – In A Knapsack Full of Dreams, Cathy Crowe details her lifelong commitment as a nurse and social justice activist—particularly her thirty years as a Street Nurse—with passion, grace, and fortitude

Podcasts/audio series about homelessness

Pushing back against misinformation and stigmatizing language

Invisible People published a 4-part series on fighting misinformation about homelessness, the episodes in the series are listed below with links to each:

  1. Why Fact-Checking is Important When It Comes to Homelessness News
  2. How to Identify Misinformation in Homelessness News
  3. Tackling Misinformation: Strategies Advocates Can Use to Spread the Truth About Homelessness
  4. Join the Fight Against Misinformation About Homelessness

Shifting Hearts and Minds: Practical Communications Strategies for Addressing Homelessness in Mid-Size Cities is a 12-page article with loads of good, practical advice for how to “communicate with purpose, make the best use of resources,  shift  hearts  and  minds,  and  ultimately  advance  your  goal  of promoting human rights-based and sustainable solutions to homelessness in your community.”

Interior Health has a good infographic about how to avoid stigmatizing language about homelessness. 

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