Reporting from the font lines of the drug poisoning crisis, Garth Mullins is a drug user activist and award-winning radio documentarian. He is host and executive producer of the Crackdown Podcast where drug users cover the drug war as war correspondents. This is Garth’s second overdose crisis. He used injection heroin for over a decade and is now on methadone. He is a member of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users and is also a trade union organizer and musician.

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Jen St. Denis is an award-winning journalist who's spent her career providing in-depth reporting on housing and city politics. Today, she is working with The Tyee, an independent news magazine based in Vancouver, BC, focusing her eye on the complex Downtown Eastside. Her investigative coverage has shed light on both the beauty and tragedy the community experiences, from grassroots advocacy to over-policing and gentrification. But unlike mainstream media, Jen also covers the unique culture and strong ties of this neighbourhood—the front lines of homelessness, the drug war, and Vancouver's affordable housing crisis.

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Targeting housing experts and professionals, CMHC's Housing Supply Challenge aims to remove or reduce barriers that hinder housing supply. And there's $300 million in funding to be awarded over 5 years for those up for it. Hear from CMHC's Brigit and Sarah about how to stand out and apply. This On the Way Home episode was brought to you by the good people at the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation

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Sekani Dakelth is from the Tl'azt'en Nation and calls the Downtown Eastside home. She is passionate about trans rights, sex worker rights and harm reduction. Like many of her peers, Sekani knows firsthand how stigma around drug use acts as a barrier to accessing health care. She has worked as a vendor with Megaphone, a monthly magazine based in the Downtown Eastside and Victoria, BC, for years and officially joined the team in 2018 to help build the Speakers Bureau.

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Lorraine Lam has spent the last decade hanging out and working with Sanctuary, a community in the heart of Toronto that seeks to particularly value individuals who live in the margins of society. These individuals often bear the brunt of the weight of systemic oppression, including homelessness, stigma, and more. Her friendships at Sanctuary have changed her life and her hope is for others to experience the same kind of transformational relationships.

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In order to solve youth homelessness, young people experiencing it or aging out of the foster care system must sit at the table where solutions are being discussed and designed. Hear Nicholas Ridiculous share his lived experience and Michelle German, Vice President of Policy and Strategy at WoodGreen Community Services, talk about their critical new report, New Housing Models for Youth Transitioning Out of Care, a Solutions Lab Roadmap. As Nicholas notes, there are lots of reports but we must act to end youth homelessness!

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David Ireland has been a housing advocate all his working life, from local authorities to government, to media and charities. Now he’s the Chief Executive of World Habitat based in the UK, whose vision is “a world where everyone has a safe and secure home in a successful community.” World Habitat recently released a report about how organizations across Europe worked together to save lives during the pandemic, and supported people’s journey out of homelessness. 

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Laural Raine is Director of Service Planning & Integrity at Shelter, Support and Housing Administration with the City of Toronto. Recently, the city released its shelter system data publicly to inform solutions to homelessness. The data is updated monthly, and the city is expanding on the data it collects. Hear more about why transparency and data are key pillars to end homelessness.

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There is no denying that Dr. Jeffrey Turnbull is dedicated to serving people experiencing chronic homelessness after turning down a top job with a hospital in order to found Ottawa Inner City Health and work with people whose homelessness mean compounded complex health issues and a much shorter lifespan. Hear about lessons learned from COVID-19, challenges, and why housing is healthcare.

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