Genesis of an Idea: The First Decade

In the early 1980s a group of Toronto performers struck by the increasing number of artists who, after a lifetime of professional work found themselves facing an impoverished existence, decided they were going to do something about it.  The group established a series of objectives that included creating and sustaining affordable housing and improved living conditions for those in the performing arts.  The main focus was to be on artists with disabilities or nearing the end of their careers and their peers who were alone or ill, many isolated from the profession they had worked in all their lives.

An initial needs survey was completed and with the endorsement and support of the Actors Fund of Canada (AFC), The Alliance of Cinema Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), the American Federation of Musicians (AF of M) and Canadian Actors Equity Association (CAEA), PAL Canada was founded in 1986 as a non -profit organization centered in Toronto. Its main objective: To address the lack of any supported housing facility for performing artists in Canada, the only country in the developed world at that time which had failed to recognize such a need.