Ottawa winters are cold. Braving that cold is not always a choice.
But over 200 Westboro residents chose to do just that on Feb. 28 when they took part in the Coldest Night of the Year walk.
“It literally brings the supporters directly into the community. You’re walking within where the residences are, where the people are that support it and that make these projects and this organization possible. We’re right in the mix.” said Rebecca Leikin, a participant in this year’s walk.
“I’m walking here with a lot of my family, including one of my kids and his friend, and I do think about how grateful we are. Every chase we have the ability to give back, we do,” Leikin said. “Tonight’s not exactly the coldest night, but there are lots and lots of nights where it is very, very challenging for those who may not have everything that we have.”
The Coldest Night of the Year (CNOY) is a nationwide charity event that aims to raise awareness and money to help fight homelessness. The Westboro event, one of seven Ottawa-based events, sponsored Cornerstone Housing for Women, a women-only shelter offering both supportive and emergency housing in Westboro.
According to the 2024 City of Ottawa Housing Needs Assessment, annual homelessness in Ottawa is projected to increase 58 per cent, from approximately 9,326 people in 2025 to 14,737 people in 2035 unless something changes.
The same study says that the average nightly occupancy of single adult women in shelters across the city increased by 94 per cent, from 128 people in 2022 to 248 in 2024.
“I think affordable housing is a major issue for Ottawa residents right now. And a lot of people are living paycheque to paycheque,” said Amber Bramer, director of development and communications at Cornerstone.
“Experiencing homelessness is a lot closer to people’s lives than they might realize. We’ve had people at our shelter who were police officers, nurses, teachers, who worked on Parliament Hill, worked in government. It really can just take one or two bad life turns.”
In 2025, almost 25 per cent of Cornerstone’s residents came to the shelter because they were fleeing a violent situation, according to Bramer.
“We’ve seen a continuation and an increase in the number of people who need mental health supports and substance use supports in our programming through our peer worker program,” Bramer said.
“Last year we had almost 800 calls to paramedics and Acorn [Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now] and police services to either bring women to our shelter or we needed help at the shelter to support women who are in distress. We were averaging three calls a day.”
The emergency shelter provides women with essentials like toiletries, access to shower and laundry facilities, three meals a day and a snack, and daily programming.
They also offer case managers, a peer support program for those with substance abuse disorders, and partner with Pinecrest-Queensway Community Health Centre, the Minwaashin Lodge, Ottawa Rape Crisis Centre, and Ottawa Inner City Health.
Bramer says running the emergency shelter requires Cornerstone to raise $1 million every year. Cornerstone’s goal with the Coldest Night of the Year was to raise $100,000 for their emergency shelter. The remaining $900,000 comes from grants, donations, and other fundraisers.
Cornerstone surpassed their goal and raised $110,795 as of publication.
The community is very supportive of the event, according to Judy Lincoln, executive director of the Westboro Village Business Improvement Area, which sponsors the event.
“One of our strategic pillars is to build community and it fits well into that. It’s really about bringing people down to the street, allowing them to explore while they’re also supporting a charity that does great work,” Lincoln said.
“And coming on as a sponsor really allows us to help Cornerstone run a successful event and raise funds to support all their programming.” Katie Valente, owner of Fratelli, an Italian restaurant in Westboro, says her business has sponsored the event for more than five years.
“For me, the biggest thing was just recognizing a need, especially for women in tough places in their lives and trying to find ways that we could help to a certain degree,” said Valente, whose restaurant also sponsors Cornerstone’s Purple Tie Gala.
Valente’s husband passed away 11 years ago due to cancer. She says the loss forced her to reflect on her situation.
“I had … three kids under the age of nine. I was lucky to be in a good place financially when my husband passed away. So, I know that there are circumstances out there, especially for women, when something like that happens, to run into really hard times,” she said.
“I think the coldest night of the year walk is just a good way to try and help support Cornerstone and knowing that that’s what they do for women, helping them in tough times.”
Valente, who said she is unable to walk in this year’s event, said it is an opportunity to create a sense of community.
“There were a ton of other businesses that also got teams together and did the walk,” she said. “The experience to me was just, it was a really good sense of community and knowing that we were helping a good cause.”
Not every community member can participate in the walk easily, but Betty Bertrand found a way to take part regardless of her issues with mobility.
Bertrand joined the walk from inside her apartment building. She did not feel the cold this year, but she recalls working on Cumberland Road near the Shepherds of Good Hope, Union Mission for Men, and Salvation Army. She worked in the area for 24 years.
“You saw a lot of people who needed help and support,” she says. “When I do go for the walk and I sit down and rest, I look at myself as being fortunate that I don’t have to worry about being homeless, or where my next meal is coming from or where am I going to spend the night.”
Bertrand says that even if the walk seems like a small thing, it could make a big difference in someone else’s life.
“I’m hoping that by doing this, it’s like giving people a ray of hope that there’s maybe something better to come in the future for them,” she said. “The more people that we can find a place that they feel safe— then they can maybe put their lives back together again. It’s awfully hard to do anything when you’re on the street and worrying about your next meal or where are you going to spend the night.”
Bramer says that it is important to raise awareness about how homelessness is experienced by unsheltered people.
“It really brings home how fortunate we are, for those of us who have a home, to have warmth, to have access to nutritional meals and to not have to worry about where you’re going to stay the next day. So, going on the walk, being in the cold, it gives you that sense of what it’s like to be homeless for a little bit of time,” Bramer said.
Community members can continue to support Cornerstone Housing through information sharing and donations.
A list of updated items in demand can be found on the shelter’s website.
