A fake homeless shelter popped up in a neighbourhood overnight. The goal was to bring out people's dislike for the homeless being in their neighbourhood and turn their dislike into positive action. Help them see, Raising the Roof doesn't like the idea of short term shelters either. By igniting the conversation we were able to push the agenda towards long-term housing.

Homeless Shelter – Coming Soon! We took over a property in an affluent area of Toronto and covered it with a plywood façade and a sign: “Homeless Shelter – Coming Soon!” It created an immediate uproar in the community. People picked up the phone and did the talking for us. The message was clear – nobody wanted a shelter in their “back yard”. The stunt happened in one location, but the buzz spread across the country and the conversation was further ignited in an online film piece.

The “hoax” caused a media frenzy that reached every major Toronto news outlet and even other parts of the world. We had coverage on HuffingtonPost.ca, Buzzfeed.com, Toronto Star, CP24, Independent.co.uk, and more. The result was an estimated 7,700,000 potential unique impressions with $0 invested in media. By the end of the frenzy, donations to Raising the Roof increased 506% vs. PY. Most importantly, we made an invisible issue mainstream.