Laura Hesp was appalled when she heard about a Toronto clothing brand selling shirts with words such as “homeless” and “change please” written across.

Trevor Nicholls, founder of the Homeless Toronto brand, said he aimed to raise awareness surrounding homelessness through his clothing line and give back to worthy causes, but was accused of exploiting poverty in the process.

It was especially troubling for Hesp, who has spent the past year organizing and holding fundraisers, meal deliveries and rallies for those living in shelters and on the street.

Her main fundraising technique has been clothing sales, through her brand called Inclusive Love Inc.

For $30, Hesp sells T-shirts with the wording “Toronto Loves Everybody,” a spin-off of the “Toronto vs Everybody” brand, to promote inclusivity while raising funds for her efforts. She said she’s also donated many of the shirts to those in shelters too.

“When I saw that Homeless TO thing, it was pretty much a slap in the face because that’s what I actually do for real,” said Hesp, 26.

For her, it’s personal.

Wednesday marks the one-year anniversary of her father Doug’s death. For a period of time before he died, Doug was homeless but his daughter didn’t even know.

Hesp is hosting a gathering Wednesday at Yonge-Dundas Square. She and a group of at least 20 people will be there after 5 p.m. wearing Inclusive Love Inc.’s T-shirts, holding up signs that say “free hugs” and handing out stickers.

On this occasion, she’s not selling the T-shirts, but rather handing them out for free. The caveat is that if you want one, you have to join her cause and stand with the group “spreading love” at Yonge and Dundas.

The idea is to have as many people as possible gathering to talk about homelessness in a positive, inclusive atmosphere.

“It’s more about showing people that it takes more than just money to get involved,” she said. “You have to get off your computer, come out, help us.”

Hesp said her father died last year at age 62 when he was found alone in a motel room. She was told it was due to natural causes.

“My dad hid it (homelessness) from me for a couple years,” said Hesp. “I think that there was a lot of guilt and shame from him that he tried to hide it, which really makes me so sad because he was just living in shelters and on the street and didn’t tell anybody.”

Ever since, she’s been working to rid the stigma associated with homelessness. She’s pledged to donate $20 from all sales through April and May to Eva’s Initiatives for Homeless Youth and is also raising money for the organization through an online campaign.

“I decided to just try and do something positive for them,” said Hesp. “I really just wanted to show that people don’t always just exploit homeless people. There are good people, there are good organizations. There’s good stuff happening in the city.”

Last month, Nicholls said he planned to donate 40 per cent of proceeds from his sales to organizations such as Eva’s. But Eva’s said it didn’t have any arrangements with the Homeless Toronto brand and wouldn’t enter into a partnership with it unless its messaging was more respectful of people experiencing homelessness.

“If you speak with young people with experience, young people will say that one of the hardest things to deal with is the stigma of homelessness and that there’s a perception that if you are homeless it’s because you’ve done something wrong,” said Eva’s executive director Jocelyn Helland.

“That can’t be further from the truth. It’s actually about circumstance.”

Helland said the donations brought in from Hesp’s fundraiser would be used to support youth who have experienced homelessness through counseling, employment programming and education programming.

Hesp said her work with the homeless community since her father’s death has taught her how easy it is to relate to someone without a home.

“These people are so kind and humble. There’s just so much stigma around this community when everyone is so polite,” she said. “That’s my whole point. I want people to see that it’s not intimidating, there should be no stigma. These are real human beings.”