After surviving prostate cancer two years ago, Vancouver lawyer Ron Josephson realized he has much to be grateful for. And seeing 2,600 homeless people in the city have so little, he decided it was time to give something back.

In order to remind all of Vancouver about their blessings, Josephson has organized Gratitude Week (Oct. 12-16), which aims to raise money and awareness to end homelessness. Armed with some local celebrities, Gratitude Week is asking every Vancouverite to donate $1 to the cause.

“The message is if you want to want to do something to end homelessness and fight the fight, even a dollar will help,” he says.

Building on the work of groups that already help the homeless, Josephson says that while Gratitude Week will probably be around for the next couple of years, he hopes it does not become a regular annual event.

“My goal, and it may be naïve, is that we will have enough momentum from the work that’s being generated by the people in the field right now, as well of the support of the population, the average citizen, that we are trying to reach, that there will be a significant change in the landscape in regards to homelessness in the next couple of years,” he says.

However, how exactly the money will be spent has caused some confusion. In one of Gratitude Week’s first ads, Urban Rush co-host Fiona Forbes said the money was going towards buying the Pender Hotel, which was actually purchased by the province last year for $3.3 million. The building is already set to be converted into social housing and will be managed by the BC Native Housing Society.

Josephson says the problem came from the fact that much of the advertisement was ad-libbed and admits it was “a naïve mistake” for Gratitude Week to say they were buying the hotel.

“Unintentionally, [Forbes] just got it wrong,” he says. “We could not possibly be buying anything, we don’t have that sort of money.”

Instead, the money will go towards renovating the Pender Hotel and the Gastown Hotel, which was also purchased by the province last year for $6.8 million. Gratitude Week’s focus will be on the Pender, which is due to open this spring for 23 residents.

However, the province has already earmarked $3.15 million to renovate the Pender Hotel. So for every dollar that Gratitude Week raises, BC Housing will take a dollar out of what was going to be used to renovate the Pender Hotel and put it towards the Gastown, which does not have any money allocated for renovations. When the Pender reopens, it will be renamed “Gratitude House”.

“We want to have the ability to demonstrate that people’s actions—putting their dollar down, or their $10 or $20 down—are actually tangible,” says Josephson.

“So people can take their family and drive by the Pender Hotel and say, ‘Children, we must do something to bring an end homelessness and, by the way, we’ve donated some money and that building is going to be constructed and there are going to be people living there in the next number of months,” he adds.

With the confusion hopefully settled, Josephson says he hopes Gratitude Week is more than just about raising money and helps remind everyone why they have much to be grateful about and why it’s time to give something back.