Mennonite Central Committee

Steve Grant and Doug Johnson Hatlem (right) walk the streets in Toronto to make and maintain friendships with street involved and homeless people.

Photo by Joanie Peters

Walking the streets- "to be the eyes and ears of Jesus"

Gladys Terichow
January 30, 2007

TORONTO, Ont.— Steve Grant is not sleeping outside this winter or looking for warmth and safety in an ATM lobby, coffee shop or emergency shelter.

Grant, 63, became homeless a year after he lost his job at the age of 55. But he isn’t homeless anymore. In May 2006, Grant moved into Junia House, a fledgling Christian community in a three-storey house in Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood.

“Doug invited me to stay in his house,” he said, as he prepared to lead a street outreach walk with Doug Johnson Hatlem by filling backpacks with gloves, socks, toques and a thermos of hot chocolate. “I now live with Doug and his family at Junia House and work with his ministry.”

Johnson Hatlem, 30, is a street pastor working with MCC Ontario’s Lazarus Rising program and an integral part of the Sanctuary team, MCC’s partner organization that is building a church community at its Toronto centre with street-involved and homeless people.

Through organizing three or four outreach walks each week, the Sanctuary team develops trusting relationships with street-involved and homeless people.

“Tonight we are taking backpacks but sometimes we don’t give out anything,” said Johnson Hatlem, explaining that offering people socks or a cup of hot chocolate opens the door to “making and maintaining friendships with folks on the streets”—the primary purpose of the walks.

“At Sanctuary, we come into contact with about 1,000 different people in any given month,” said Johnson Hatlem. “Walking the streets is a way to meet people on their turf—to be the eyes and ears of Jesus. This is a ministry of presence, not only to share the presence of Jesus but to be see Jesus in the street—to be blessed by those who are usually ignored or only treated as objects of charity.”

Grant said the hardest thing about being homeless is the loss of self-esteem. “People look down on you,” he said, explaining it is difficult for homeless people to find clothes that fit properly and have access to showers and laundry facilities.

Grant was working in the mailroom in the head office of a large mining company in downtown Toronto when he lost his job. “They downsized and I was let go,” he said. “I flogged my resume everywhere but eventually I went through all my savings and ended up on the street. Homelessness can really happen to anybody. I never thought it would happen to me.”

When he was homeless he started going to shelters on bitterly cold nights but didn’t like the crowded and sometimes hostile conditions. “The street is safer,” he explained.

Most homeless people, he noted, don’t have ATM cards and the luxury of finding shelter in an ATM lobby. But he had a card and slept in parks and in an ATM lobby for several months before claiming a spot in Nathan Phillips Square, a city square that forms the south entrance to Toronto City Hall.

“I picked up really good sleeping bags and spent the entire winter of 2004 at city hall,” he said. Then, in 2005, Toronto mayor David Miller banned the homeless from sleeping in Nathan Phillips Square to direct the homeless to shelters and permanent housing.

Grant met the eligibility requirements for a permanent apartment under the new Streets to Home program but found himself back on the street again when he refused to cash in a RSP that is locked in until he reaches the age of 65.

“When you are on welfare you are not supposed to have anything—they said you either cash it or you are off welfare. If you cash it ahead of time you pay a penalty. This is for my retirement so I was back on the street again.”

When Johnson Hatlem realized that Grant was homeless again he and his wife Jodie, along with the other couple living with them in Junia House, invited Grant to live with them. The Hatlems have two preschool age children and Angela and Ben ElzingaCheng have one child.

Grant and the two families live as a Christian community and share most meals and all of their resources.

Being part of a Christian community house and an active volunteer in ministries for street involved and homeless people have given him more than a sense of belonging and sense of purpose. “This has made a big difference in my life,” he said.