1. It's been two years since it was reported that homeless women between 18 and 44 in Toronto are dying at 10 times the normal rate. Who's doing what about that? Has anything changed?
2. If I became homeless, where would I find pads? Tampons? A place to sterilize my menstrual cup if I still had it?
4. Would there be accessible birth control?
5. Would there be anything I could do to protect myself from STIs from a rapist? I might be able to prevent pregnancy (see #4), but I can't very well make him wear a condom.
6. How would I get treated in a walk-in clinic? An emergency room?
7. Would the shelters be safe? Would I be at risk of violence and/or rape?
8. If I feel nervous walking by myself at night, how scary must their home be for a woman to choose to live on the streets?
9. Why can I sponsor a child in the Third World, but not one of the one in three children in Toronto who live below the poverty line?

Chris and I walked out of his building the other day only to find a homeless man curled up on the floor in the doorway. He had no socks on. There were cuts on his feet. He smelled bad. It was raining outside and he had found a dry place to sleep. We walked by, but he's been stuck in my head. What if we had given him socks? Offered him the use of the shower? Cut his hair? Would that have been too risky, or just the right thing to do? Do we reject that idea because it's dangerous or because it's inconvenient?

I think I'm going to carry packs of warm socks this winter. And work on my growing stash of yarn by crocheting toques and giving them away, like I've intended to do but never actually bothered with for three years.