Our library in Hewett Centre is open every Sunday after service during Coffee Hour in Hewett Centre. Here is the Library Team’s related reading list for the upcoming forum, sponsored by the IPA and Social Justice Teams, on Sunday, October 26, 2025 at 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. in the Fireside room.
VanU library books related to the forum:
1. Ending Homelessness in Canada: The Case for Homelessness Prevention, edited by James Hughes, 2024, 362.592709 [From LibraryThing: “More Canadians than ever lack a home. Almost every town and city now has homeless residents. Municipalities scramble to provide shelters, and local politicians debate whether to take action to end sleeping on vacant land and in parks. Social agencies providing services to the homeless see the need for new measures that prevent people from experiencing homelessness, rather than providing them with support once they have nowhere to live. In this book, leading figures involved in trying to end homelessness describe what they are doing, and make the case for a wide range of innovative measures.”].
2. Homeless Youth and the Search for Stability, by Jeff Karabanow, Sean Kidd, Tyler Frederick, and Jean Hughes, 2018 [From LibraryThing: “Youth are one of the fastest growing segments of the homeless population. Although there has been much research on how youth become homeless and survive on the streets, we know very little about their pathways off the street and the many challenges that present during this process. This book relates the lived experiences of homeless youth as they negotiate the individual, sociocultural, and economic tensions of transitioning out of homeless and street contexts and cultures. Through interviews, the authors gained privileged entry into the lives of youth in Toronto and Halifax over a year-long period. … participants spoke of courage, fortitude, strength, adversity, and at times, simple bad luck. Ultimately this became a story of fragility, complexity, living “on the edge”, and the (re)-building of identity.”].
3. Home Truths: Fixing Canada’s Housing Crisis, by Carolyn Whitzman, 2024 [From UBC Press: “This is the book that Canadians must read to understand, confront, and solve our housing crisis. Hundreds of thousands of Canadians exist on the edge. Renters fear eviction, homeowners feel trapped, and both are vulnerable to becoming homeless with a single stroke of misfortune. Unaffordable housing in Canada is tearing communities apart as long-time residents seek affordable housing elsewhere and businesses shutter because they cannot find staff who can afford to live nearby. For two generations, Canadians have watched affordable housing vanish while other nations have been tackling the problem. In Home Truths, housing expert Carolyn Whitzman reviews the decades of policy that have gotten us into this mess and shows how all levels of government can work together to provide affordable housing where it is needed. Her compelling arguments for policy solutions are backed by ideas from researchers, planners, politicians, developers, and housing advocates at home and abroad. …”].
4. Homelessness: the Making and Unmaking of a Crisis, by Jack Layton, 2000, 363.5 LAY [From LibraryThing: “Jack Layton, one of this country’s leading experts and outspoken activists on housing issues, addresses the crisis from its roots, in order not only to understand the problem, but to find workable solutions. With a stunning combination of rigorous research and compelling personal anecdote, and trenchant and timely analysis from such wide-ranging sources as social scientists, housing economists, mayors, journalists, clergy and the homeless themselves, Homelessness offers insight, perspective and proactive solutions to a seemingly intractable crisis.”].
5. V6A: Writing from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, by John Mikhail Asfour and Elee Kraljii Gardiner, 2012, 820.8 ASF [From LibraryThing: “Stories, essays and poems about life in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Canada’s most impoverished neighborhood.”].
6. Hope in Shadows: Stories and Photographs of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, by Brad Cran and Gillian Jerome, 2008, 971.1 CRA [From LibraryThing: “The poignant story of an at-risk community, in its residents’ own words and pictures.”].
7. Selavi, That is Life: A Haitian Story of Hope, by Youme Landowne, 2005, J+ EASY YOU [From LibraryThing: “A homeless boy on the streets of Haiti joins other street children, and together they build a home and a radio station where they can care for themselves and for other homeless children.”].