Housing
Justice
Archive


Reading ListOral History Project
Toronto Disaster Relief Committee
1998 - 2012
City of Toronto Archives
The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
1990 - 2020
Ontario Provincial Archives
Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU)
1998 - Present
VANDU Archive / SFU Special Collections
Toronto Homeless Memorial
2000 - Present    
City of Toronto Archives / Personal Collection / Rebecca Houston
Bob Rose’s Writing
[199- - 20--]
Bob Rose Personal Collection
Oral History Interview Transcripts
(in process)
2025 - Present
timothy martin


timothy martin, Postdoctoral Fellow, Simon Fraser University
timothy_martin [at] sfu [dot] ca

The Toronto Disaster Relief Committee was part of an early and vibrant moveement of organizers based in Toronto, but whose work rippled across Canada. For writing dealing with the significance of their work, and their extensive archive, see:

Crowe, C. (2007). Dying for a home: Homeless activists speak out. Between the Lines.

Martin, T. (2025). Public pedagogy and the archive: Information, interruption, and public things amidst Canadian housing activism. Philosophical Inquiry in Education, 32(2).  





Cathy Crowe and Beric German at the Toronto Homeless Memorial. (n.d.). Cathy Crowe Personal Collection.
Bob Rose. (1999). City of Toronto Archives (Box Fonds 335, Series 1779, File 191).
In December of 1998, the TDRC hosted a People’s Court event, putting the various levels of government on (mock) trial for the creation of the housing crisis. In this photograph, David Hulchanski unveils evidence in the form of a scroll containing a list of co-op and non-profit housing projects canceled by Mike Harris’s Conservatives: some 17,000 units of affordable housing, capable of housing 45,000 people.  

Toronto Disaster Relief Committee. (1998, December 8). [Photograph of David Hulchanski rolling out scroll during People’s Court event]. City of Toronto Archives (Box 543966, Fonds 335, Series 1780, File 2).
Steve Lane was a pivotal member of the Toronto Coalition Against Homelessness (TCAH), an organizing effort that predated the TDRC.

Lane, S. (199-). Death of a dance [poem]. City of Toronto Archives (Box 543929, Fonds 335, Series 1779, File 207).
Early material promoting “the 1% solution” for affordable and accessible housing for all.

Toronto Disaster Relief Committee. (c. 1998). [“Housing for all!”]. City of Toronto Archives (Box 543937, Fonds 335, Series 1779, File 451).
Cathy Crowe giving a speech for the Canadian Auto Workers Union. (c. 2001). Cathy Crowe Personal Collection.
Promotional material for one of many public protests/vigils held over the winter of 1999-2000. At this action, a letter (below) was hand delivered to the mayor’s office by Peter Rosenthal.

Toronto Disaster Relief Committee. (2000). Protest the homeless deaths [Flyer]. City of Toronto Archives (Box 543935, Fonds 335, Series 1779, File 395).
Toronto Disaster Relief Committee. (2000). Protest the homeless deaths [Media Advisory]. City of Toronto Archives (Box 543935, Fonds 335, Series 1779, File 395).
Brian Boyd’s Memorial outside of Mel Lastman's "Mayor's Levee" on January 1, 2003.

Toronto Disaster Relief Committee. (2003, January 1). [Photograph: TDRC memorial for Brian Boyd]. City of Toronto Archives (Box 543966, Fonds 335, Series 1780, File 6).
Rosenthal, P. & Toronto Disaster Relief Committee. (April 26, 2000). Open letter to Mayor Mel Lastman. City of Toronto Archives (Box 543935, Fonds 335, Series 1779, File 395).

In March of 2003, the TDRC and allies marched along Dundas Street, carrying the charred remains of Bobby MacLaughlin’s mattress, who died when his shelter caught fire earlier that winter.

Bobby McLaughlin’s mattress. (2003). From City of Toronto Archives (Fonds 335, Series 1780, File unknown).
Nancy Baker at the 24 hour vigil event at the Toronto Homeless Memorial in 2005.

Toronto Disaster Relief Committee. (2005, August 8). [Vigil photo 179: Nancy Baker and ‘Housing for All’]. City of Toronto Archives (Box 543966, Fonds 335, Series 1780, File 11).
A handmade plaque in remembrance of Paul Croutch, who was beaten to death by army reservists outside of the Moss Park Armoury in 2005 while sleeping on a park bench. Croutch was known to the Gateway community.  

Bacque, Graeme. (2005). [TDRC photograph 2602: Paul Croutch handmade memorial plaque on bench in Moss Park]. City of Toronto Archives (Box 543966, Fonds 335, Series 1780, File 11).
Toronto Disaster Relief Committee. (c. 2014). Women’s deaths protest and memorial wall. City of Toronto Archives (Box 543966, Fonds 335, Series 1780, File unknown).