Cathy Crowe, street nurse Honorary Doctor of Laws Faculty of Health II Thursday, June 17, 2010 – 3:30pm Cathy Crowe has committed her life and career to alleviating homelessness in Canada. Crowe has been a street nurse in downtown Toronto for more than 15 years, and a vocal advocate for social justice and equity to help improve the lives of the marginalized and poor. In 1998, Crowe co-founded the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee (TDRC), which sparked Canada-wide action on affordable housing by declaring homelessness a national disaster. The campaign’s signature “one per cent” slogan demands that all levels of government commit an additional one per cent of their budgets to an affordable social housing program. As a board member of St. Clare’s Multifaith Housing, Crowe recently secured 272 new affordable housing units in Toronto. She is also a past member of the Toronto Board of Health and the Toronto City Council Advisory Committee on Homeless & Socially Isolated Persons. Crowe is the recipient of many awards, among them the International Nursing Ethics Award and the Atkinson Charitable Foundation’s Economic Justice Award. In 2002, her life’s work was the subject of a documentary film titled Street Nurse, directed by Emmy and Gemini winner Shelley Saywell. Crowe holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing and a master’s degree in adult education.