Toronto woman raises $13K for man without a home and puts him up in hotel

Donations are pouring forth for a beloved community member in Etobicoke to help him escape the frigid cold as winter turns nasty and temperatures drop.

"This is Cliff. He is a very kind soul living in our neighbourhood. He is homeless and most days can be found at the bus shelter on Prince Edward or Grenview south of Bloor," reads the description of a GoFundMe campaign created by Etobicoke resident Luisa Piccirilli.

"It was frigid last night and the temperature will drop even further this evening. I called The Queensway Motel and managed to secure a room for Cliff for a week starting today. I was able to negotiate a rate of $500 for the week."

Piccirilli had already paid for Cliff to stay a week at the motel when she started thinking about ways in which the community could help out on a more longterm basis.

"I thought perhaps we could brainstorm on a way to make this a more long term solution and extend his stay beyond next Friday," she wrote on GoFundMe, where the campaign was created four days ago.

"I also found out he needs some clean warm wool socks, base layers, gloves, etc...  I am happy to do any porch pick ups if anyone would like to donate," she wrote.

As it turns out, many people would like to donate — 184 of them had as of Tuesday evening, to the tune of a whopping $13,245.

The goal was to raise $10,000 but Piccirilli is already thinking of ways to spend the extra money on Cliff.

"Perhaps we could also get him some gift cards for food such as No Frills, Tim Hortons, Starbucks, etc," she wrote in the campaign description. "I welcome any suggestions you may have and thank you in advance for your compassion and understanding."

No ma'am, thank you for inspiring such compassion in this city.