Cathy Crowe Cathy Crowe obtained her diploma in nursing from Toronto General Hospital in 1972, her Bachelor of Applied Arts in Nursing from Ryerson in 1985, and her Masters of Education (Sociology) from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in 1992. In June 2001 she received an Honorary Doctor of Science in Nursing from the University of Victoria in British Columbia.
Cathy has been a Street Nurse in downtown Toronto and worked in the area of homelessness for over 15 years. She prefers to be called a Street Nurse – a term coined about 15 years ago by a homeless man at the corner of Sherbourne and Dundas in downtown Toronto. She points out that at that time there were only 4 or 5 street nurses in Toronto, perhaps even Canada, compared to probably 100 now, from Victoria to Halifax. That in itself makes a powerful statement about the extent of homelessness in our country.
In October 2003 Cathy received an International Nursing Ethics Award in Amsterdam. In January, 2004 she was awarded the Atkinson Charitable Foundation’s Economic Justice Award and is now based at the Sherbourne Health Centre. She plans to devote the next three years to fight for a national housing program.
A documentary film on Cathy’s work titled ‘Street Nurse’ directed by Emmy and Gemini winner Shelley Saywell has been produced and aired on the Women’s channel in the fall of 2002.
Cathy follows the pulse of health issues affecting homeless people and over the years that has included reduced access to health care, overall deteriorating health, the return of tuberculosis, deplorable shelter conditions, the threat of SARS, and an escalating death rate. Along with remarkable colleagues, homeless activists and friends she has fostered numerous coalitions and advocacy initiatives.
In 1998 Cathy co-founded the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee (TDRC) which declared homelessness a National Disaster. The disaster campaign is a three level campaign targeting federal, provincial and municipal solutions to the homeless disaster and housing crisis. Its signature 1% slogan refers to the demand that all levels of government commit an additional 1% of their budgets to an affordable, social housing program.
