Cathy Crowe, is a Canadian "street nurse", educator, author, social justice activist and filmmaker, specializing in advocacy for the homeless in Canada. She is a frequent commentator on issues related to health, homelessness and affordable housing. She is currently a visiting practitioner at Ryerson University.
She came to public prominence as a "street nurse", a term coined in the early 1990s by a homeless man in the impoverished downtown Toronto area where she worked. She is noted for her work with the homeless and poor populations in Canada's largest city, Toronto. She is an activist for affordable housing, public health and social justice. In 1998, along with other social justice activists and academics, she co-founded the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee. They brought public attention to homelessness declaring it to be a man-made disaster, which in their view, qualified as a social welfare disaster requiring the same kind of response that governments give to natural disasters. This human-disaster was the basis for the name of the group and many of its ideas. The TDRC and Crowe promoted the idea of a "One Percent Solution" to end homelessness. The one percent solution calls for each level of government to commit an additional one percent of their budget towards affordable, social housing.
Electoral politics
In January 2010, Crowe entered electoral politics, by offering to run for the Ontario New Democratic Party, as their candidate in the February 4, 2010 by-election in the provincial riding of Toronto Centre. At the ONDP's January 10, 2010 nomination meeting, her candidacy went uncontested. She faced Ontario Liberal Party's candidate, Glen Murray, and Pamela Taylor for the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party. Crowe finished a strong second, doubling the NDP's vote totals by taking 33 percent of the popular vote. She ran a second time in the 2011 provincial general election but lost to incumbent Glen Murray. For many years she worked closely with former Toronto City Councillor and leader of the federal NDP Jack Layton. She wrote the foreword to his book Homelessness. How to End the National Crisis which he co-authored with Michael Shapcott.
Dying for a Home
Crowe's book, Dying for a Home: Homeless Activists Speak Out, is a first-hand account of Canadian homelessness and also discusses the practical steps needed to address the problem.
A Knapsack Full of Dreams: Memoirs of a Street Nurse
Crowe published her memoirs, A Knapsack Full of Dreams: Memoirs of a Street Nurse in 2019. In it, she reflects on her life as a street nurse and advocate for the homeless; the role characterized by some journalists of a "relentless accuser" advocating for policy change that addresses the causes of social injustice, rather than dealing simply with the symptoms.
Films
Crowe has been involved in multiple documentary films about homelessness: Home Safe Hamilton, Development research with filmmaker Laura Sky, . Home Safe Toronto. Executive Producer. Filmmaker - Laura Sky, Skyworks Charitable Foundation. Home Safe Calgary. Executive Producer. Filmmaker - Laura Sky, Skyworks Charitable Foundation. Street Nurse. Subject participant. Filmmaker - Shelley Saywell, Bishari Film Productions. Shelter From The Storm. A profile of Toronto Disaster Relief Committee and Tent City Toronto. Filmmaker - Michael Connolly.
Awards
She received an International Nursing Ethics Award in 2003 in Amsterdam. She was also the recipient of the Economic Justice Fellowship Award, from the Atkinson Charitable Foundation, in 2004 which was twice renewed. She was named Person of the Year by the Toronto Sun and was named Toronto's Best Homelessness advocate by NOW Magazine. In January 2018, Cathy was appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada.
