“I am homeless and there is not enough money in the month from OW, Ontario Works, to pay for all my meals to get me through the month. I come here to eat.”

“I was abused in my previous relationship. I was on an emotional, like I left work, for emotional and mental reasons. Then I just decided to quit because it just got too much for me. You have to go through everything and still put a smile on your face every day at work. It was hard.”

“My townhouse got flooded, so I lost my housing. I left Windsor, where I’m from, after that. I came here [Peterborough]. It’s been really tough to try to find a stable place to live.”

[I live] “in a tent. I’m on Parkhill. It is better [than in the shelter] ‘cause you have your space. No one is there to tell you to turn your music down or that you’re a bother to them. You don’t have to take your tent down every day. My backpack is usually really heavy. Usually, I do have six bags on me.”

“During the winter, I’m not sure. I might have to go into a shelter, I guess. It’s not really ideal, but it’s somewhere safe and warm, I guess.”

“When I first went to Toronto, I was homeless for about a week so I know what it’s like to be homeless. It’s not a good sight to see.”

“Being homeless, with the way rent is going up every time you turn around, people on a fixed income doesn’t get that much money to pay for a place to live so that’s why we have homeless people. If I had my way, if I had all the money in the world, I would buy a place, like property, I’d build a house, or even an apartment building, just to get the homeless people off the streets.”

“The murders, OD’s. If you’re on the street, you don’t have nothing to eat. That’s why we have a place called The One Roof Community Centre. I’m actually happy we’ve got that place.”

“With the food situation it is getting kinda sticky out there. We need to have places that is willing to help out with more food so that people that’s homeless can eat. Hopefully we get that because every year there’s more and more people that’s becoming homeless.”

“My job is working at the One Roof, volunteering. A lot of people ask me, well, why don’t you see about getting paid. My pay is I see people come up happy and they leave happy with a full stomach. That’s my pay. A lot of people say, well, that’s the first time I’ve heard somebody say that. To me money’s nothing. As long as I see people happy that’s all that matters. It’s a friendly place. They won’t turn their back on anybody. It’s a good place to hang out and get out of the cold or get out of the heat.”

“The One Roof is actually a place for if you’re in need for bathroom stuff or harm reduction stuff that we give it out to people who needs it. It’s a good resource place to come to. We welcome everybody. It doesn’t matter what colour skin you are, what race you are, we always welcome people with open arms.”

“Like I said, getting back to One Roof, we don’t turn nobody away. If we could, we’d probably stay open 24 hours. But unfortunately, we can’t. There aren’t enough people to help out.”