Bob Cotie took this photo on his way back from the Toronto Islands.

I kind of saw it as a picture of freedom, looking free and sitting there and representing a new place to live," he says. Bob says this picture represents "separation between worlds. Our world is a dream compared to what these people are coming from."

Bob says he came to realize the stigma of homelessness and poverty when he experienced it 15 years ago. "I fell through a crack. I was arrested. I couldn’t go back to my apartment. They put me in Seaton house. I lost my two pit bulls. I had nowhere else to go. It was an eye opener."

Bob says we need to adopt a more humanizing perspective on homelessness. "There are no poor people, just people who have been treated poorly. It’s up to us to correct that."