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For the past several months, The Free Press has taken a look at the scourge of joblessness, housing scarcity and street-level addiction in our city. We called the series Face It, for the Londoners – the human faces – behind the reports, statistics, and budget lines. And because it’s time we face the fact that our city needs help. From Monday Nov. 11 to Monday Nov. 18, a team of Free Press journalists fanned out across the city to witness and record small moments in the lives of those working through these issues – both the people struggling and the people trying to help. Here’s a collection of moments from a week in the life of struggles in our city:

SUNDAY

8 p.m. at London’s vigil for World Homeless Day

The candles won’t stay lit.

A few dozen Londoners are huddled outside Western University’s King’s University College for a ceremony to mark World Day of the Poor. Young and old, they recite the Lord’s Prayer in unison.

It’s dark, chilly and people are bundled up – hats on, scarves flung, hoods up.

But they can’t block the wind, which keeps extinguishing the long white candles people are using to commemorate the day.

They’re praying, and listening to religious leaders as they stand beside the sculpture of a Homeless Jesus, a controversial piece of art by Ontarian artist Timothy Schmalz that’s now installed worldwide.

The artist said the sculpture was inspired by Matthew 25, the idea that Christ is living among society’s most poor and vulnerable. A hand outstretched to the most marginalized is a step closer to Jesus.

Sister Sue Wilson with the Office of Systemic Justice in London is urging the crowd to look further than handing out socks or helping to prepare community meals.

She’s trying to galvanize this group of comfortable Londoners into more radical action – advocacy.

“As critical as charity and direct service are, they can never be enough in a world where 26 people own as much wealth as the poorest 50 per cent of humanity, or in a country where CEOs earn 316 times as much as someone earning $15 an hour,” she says. “And yet, corporations tell us they can’t afford to pay their employees $15 an hour.

“Such stark inequalities tear apart the fabric of our community. And when people of faith let these patterns continue unchallenged, we are putting limits on the expansiveness of love. And in the process, are we not leaving that person on the roadside?”

Later, she describes the ceremony for Day of the Poor as a way to “push faith communities to a deeper response to poverty and homelessness.”

“We’re very much still focused on addressing the symptoms of poverty. It’s not that that’s not important – it’s critical. Those socks and meals are important. But we do this year after year and year. And we have an economy that’s creating more poverty, and deeper poverty. We can’t just keep doing the same things,” Wilson says.

After the speeches, the prayers, the hymns, the leaders and the Londoners make their way inside the campus building to warm up, enjoy coffee and sweets. It’s about the same time that people living on the street start lining up for one of the city’s 320-odd emergency shelter beds.

The parishioners at King’s deposit their long white candles in a bin beside the Homeless Jesus statue – a hooded man asleep on a bench.

9 p.m. at Atlohsa Family Healing Services, 343 Richmond St.

There’s a revolving procession of Skip the Dishes drivers that park in front of the Indian-Mexican fusion restaurant across the street, throw on their four-ways, and pick up takeout orders to transport all across the city.

Across Richmond Street, and behind Atlohsa Family Healing Services, a crowd of people are waiting on a ramp leading up to a back door.

They’re all hoping to be one of the first 10 in line to get a bed, a shower, a safe place to dwell for the night.

The needs in London are so great the agency is at capacity every night, forced to turn away eight to 15 people because there simply isn’t enough room.

“We don’t really know if it’s a factor from the cold weather or the fact that more and more people are aware of our services,” Terri King, the team lead for the overnight resting space at Atlohsa, says. The resting spaces are often used by the most vulnerable in London who can’t, or won’t, use traditional shelters.

King knows it’s difficult for frontline staff who are forced to make decisions about who gets a bed and who must stay out on the street.

Some of the people who wait on the ramp are coming hours before the “intake” process begins at 9:30 p.m.

And others show up all through the night – 11 p.m., midnight, 3 a.m., 4 a.m. – “just looking to get some respite from the elements.”

“We’re not turning them away empty handed, we’re trying to turn them away with a blanket and a snack,” King says.

Atlohsa has started a coat drive to better equip the folks who are spending days outdoors.

Walking to Richmond Street on this Sunday night, a man wrapped in a blanket runs by, flapping the edges and shouting “Merry Christmas.”

Nearby, another man opens the fencing around a construction site, heading inside and

“We are seeing new faces. A couple of times a week, we have somebody new,” King says.

To read Face It|Live It: A Week of Moments – ANOTHER WEEK BEGINS click here.

To read the entire series Face It|Live It: A Week of Moments from the beginning, click here

Face It|Live It: A Week of Moments is a London Free Press newsroom project built on the work of journalists Joe Belanger, Jennifer Bieman, Dale Carruthers, Mike Hensen, Jonathan Juha, Patrick Maloney, Randy Richmond, Heather Rivers, Derek Ruttan, Jane Sims, Megan Stacey and Greg Van Moorsel