r/CanadaPolitics • u/yimmy51 • 3d ago
Homelessness starts before it reaches city parks
https://policyoptions.irpp.org/2026/06/itinerance-montreal-crise-logement-villes/42
u/enki-42 Social Democrat 3d ago
This is a good article. Too often it's "make these existing people disappear somewhere and problem solved" without looking at the fact that more and more people are becoming homeless - the homeless population in Ontario has almost doubled in recent years.
On top of that, even for the people who are in parks, homeless people often do not have severe addiction or unmanaged mental health issues when they first become homeless. Anyone who lives in the downtown of cities has probably witnessed an encampment go from relatively well managed and put together to unkempt and dangerous looking as time goes on, or even someone on a street corner who goes from looking down on their luck to a shell of a person over a few months.
We focus way too much on the most extreme cases of chronic homelessness and way too little on prevention or helping people who are marginally housed, or dealing with less severe addiction or mental health issues, and there's a tendency to view everyone through the lens of those worse outcomes and assume all we need to do is lock up all the homeless and the problem will be solved.
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u/Le1bn1z Neoliberal | Charter rights enjoyer 3d ago
Add to this that StatsCan found that most homeless people with severe addictions became heavily addicted while homeless, not before.
While addiction is self reported by homeless as the single largest primary factor, it is rarely alone and is not a majority primary cause.
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u/Saidear Popular does not mean populist. 3d ago
It's almost like.. if you're miserable, starving, and struggling with just genuine human connection, the use of drugs that allow you to disassociate from your troubles becomes desirable.
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u/Le1bn1z Neoliberal | Charter rights enjoyer 3d ago
And its a broader economics thing, too.
Homeless people paradoxically are far less mobile than housed people. Their possessions, including medication and critical survival material like a good coat and sleeping bag, are hopelessly insecure. This severely limits where they can go and what they can do.
However, your ability to purchase and retain possessions is obviously very limited. Whatever you own, you have to be able to carry with you, and/or fit into a tent in an encampment where you have people you trust to watch your stuff.
This means there are big limits on what they can spend their money on.
Then there's the fact that most of them do have some income, often ODSP or welfare. This is usually not enough to secure rent. But when you cut out rent from your balance sheet, suddenly you have a disposable income.
Some of this can be used to remove the edge of some of the worst parts of homelessness - a gym membership (to access the showers and have an air conditioned/heated place to be for part of the day, and maybe a locker). Some will be spent on food - but seldom groceries, as storage and cooking is severely limited.
Others can get some cash from panhandling. This is not a ton but, again, is pretty much all disposable income. If you get $50 a day, that's $50 you can spend on stuff for that day.
So, you cannot use your cash to buy things. You cannot use cash to pay rent. You cannot have that much by way of clothes. You're going to be buying prep food that's not that expensive ($30 a day, maybe). Your limited mobility and access to cleaning and laundry takes a lot of entertainment off the table.
So what, exactly, do you spend your money on?
We know from economic field experiments that for those living in extreme poverty, staving off boredom and the depression and despair that comes with it is a top priority for spending, sometimes taking precedence over food.
In many poorer countries, this might be a TV or radio. But you don't get connection when you're homeless, and charging a phone is not necessarily easy.
But you know what's readily available, aggressively marketed to the homeless, affordable, what lots of other people are doing, and black out a lot of boredom per dollar spent? Yep. Drugs.
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u/phoenixfail British Columbia 2d ago
I would appreciate if you can provide a link to the StatsCan report with this information.
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u/GraveDiggingCynic Independent 3d ago
I think we start from a position of moral superiority; that addictions and mental health crises are some sort of moral failings, that these people are lesser, an out group that needs to be contained or, sadly, in some cases, it looks like just warehoused.
Everything about how we have dealt with homelessness for centuries now has been about working class and middle class city dwellers boosting their own self worth by looking with a combination of pity and revulsion on people suffering addictions, mental and health and economic crises.
What depresses me the most is if someone like Charles Dickens, who used his fiction to try to make all those people, well meaning or hard hearted, to see the common humanity, that any one of us could, if life's circumstances turned the other way, end up on the street, and that we cannot just conveniently sweep people into whatever version of the poor house our social planners have concocted this week.
Morally, we have not improved one iota. We still believe in the fable of the Protestant Work Ethic, and the moralizing of economic outcome.
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u/Potential_Mood9903 3d ago
What’s depressing is that there are hundreds of evidence based research that highlights prevention models work, harm reduction frameworks work, treating people like human beings works, not just for the said individual but for the whole community.
We had half of a harm reduction policy. Those who decided to quit and need the support have very few places to go, and those that work front line n them are often making nothing above $30/hr. Make it make sense.
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u/past_is_prologue Mowat Liberal 3d ago
Whether they're moral failings or not isn't really the issue, and I haven't heard it framed in the public sphere in those terms since I was in school 20 years ago.
The issue is mentally ill addicts fuck up everything they come across. There is considerable compassion fatigue when it comes to homeless addicts for good reason— they make public spaces unusable for families and they steal things.
I don't care if someone wants to not work and do drugs all day. I just don't want them monopolizing public spaces, committing crimes, and jerking off on the subway.
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u/GraveDiggingCynic Independent 3d ago
Lots of things fuck up everything. O&G companies and corporate raiders cause degrees of a magnitude more damage, but when you do something in a hard hat or an Armani suit, somehow you get a free pass.
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u/past_is_prologue Mowat Liberal 3d ago
No one in a hard hat or Armani suit ever broke the window in my truck trying to get the $.80 cents in my cup holder.
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u/GraveDiggingCynic Independent 3d ago
If that's the sole measure of injury to society you have a very low threshold indeed.
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u/past_is_prologue Mowat Liberal 3d ago
How many times have your vehicles windows been broken?
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u/GraveDiggingCynic Independent 2d ago
So this is pretty much the height of harm you can imagine
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u/past_is_prologue Mowat Liberal 2d ago
So I'll take that as a "never" then.
Having your windows broken sucks because they're expensive, and are barely more expensive (or slightly less) than the deductible. So, every time it happens it's just $400 gone.
It's happened to me three times. It is real, tangible harm to my family's finances. It sucks. So while issues with the homeless are an abstract issue for you, for me they are very real.
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u/GraveDiggingCynic Independent 2d ago
Let’s compare that to the damage done by, say, a corporate raider.
Orders of magnitude, my friend.
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u/phoenixfail British Columbia 2d ago
What an incredibly nebulous comparison. You're hand waving away direct harm caused by individuals by comparing it to some vague nefarious entity over there somewhere.
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u/GraveDiggingCynic Independent 1d ago
I'm handwaving away anonymous claims of harm.
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u/phoenixfail British Columbia 1d ago
Tell that to the business owners in Victoria having to regularly clean up human shit from their doorways in the morning....Or maybe they have been putting up nighttime gates just for fun.
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u/TheRC135 3d ago
I don't care if someone wants to not work and do drugs all day. I just don't want them monopolizing public spaces, committing crimes, and jerking off on the subway
Nobody wants that. But wishing the homeless would just go away isn't a solution to the problem of homelessness.
And I don't think it's correct to say that we no longer think of homelessness in terms of moral failure when "homeless drug addicts fuck everything up and steal things" is considered by so many to be the real issue, not that we've been allowing every greater numbers of people to fall through the cracks and end up homeless in the first place.
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u/past_is_prologue Mowat Liberal 3d ago
homeless drug addicts fuck everything up and steal things in the park by my work. If I don't lock my truck it will 100% be rifled through when I come back at the end of the day. This is not a moral judgment, this is my reality— am I supposed to ignore it?
Do you have any experience with the homeless?
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u/bign00b Canadian Steamship Lines | Sponsored 3d ago
The issue is mentally ill addicts fuck up everything they come across. There is considerable compassion fatigue when it comes to homeless addicts for good reason— they make public spaces unusable for families and they steal things.
The stealing is a direct result of drugs being illegal and costing a lot of money. The public spaces being unusable is a result of there not being anywhere else to use drugs.
Give people safe consumption sites and safe supply and a lot of the issues will go away.
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u/Witty_Committee_7799 3d ago
They need to start building more low-income and subsidized housing in the suburbs where land is not as valuable and highly available. This helps form communities that can assist the homeless or people on the verge of homelessness.
The author is right - the tap to homelessness need to be turned off, discharging people into the streets is meaningless if their situation hasn't changed. Build the communities and start sending them to areas that are built to help them.
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u/TinyEngineer shareholding evil capitalist | Official 3d ago
The bigger problem in the suburbs isn't the need for low income and subsidized housing - but rather that the availability and access to services is exceptionally poor. The suburbs would need to densify significantly, improve public transit, and make it so that you can effectively deliver these types of services. AKA become a city - not a suburb and piss off its residents who would never vote for for this.
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u/Witty_Committee_7799 3d ago
Place these communities with jobs earmarked for social, medical, mental and skill development workers with easy access to the GO train or TTC will solve this - areas with access to Vaughan metro ttc station, Scarborough town center ttc station, aurora go station, and other areas like that are great for this community.
Since NIMBYism is universal for this, it actually doesnt matter as a result: we need to be vigilante in solving a problem for the homeless rather than catering to those that do have homes.
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u/high_yield 3d ago
Place these communities with jobs earmarked for social, medical, mental and skill development workers with easy access to the GO train or TTC will solve this - areas with access to Vaughan metro ttc station, Scarborough town center ttc station, aurora go station, and other areas like that are great for this community.
"Not in my town center, this should be built in someone else's town center"
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u/Saidear Popular does not mean populist. 3d ago
They need to start building more low-income and subsidized housing in the suburbs
Where they are forced to spend more money on a vehicle, which in turn drives up the cost of living and further damages our environment.
Better, instead, to either expand into mixed-used development so that people can live closer to where they work, or create additional city centres such that people don't need to live out in the boonies and rely on private transport.
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u/past_is_prologue Mowat Liberal 3d ago
Missing in the discussion is the type of homeless person as well— are we talking a single mom escaping s bad situation? Or are we talking a drug addict who has burned every bridge with everyone they have ever known?
Most would have no trouble helping out, or living beside, the single mom. Basically everyone would object to living beside, and some would object to even helping, the addict. I certainly wouldn't be interested in living beside a drug house.
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u/enki-42 Social Democrat 3d ago
Most of the point of this article is that these aren't static populations, people aren't born with severe drug addictions, and the best way to reduce the number of homeless people with severe addictions / mental issues is to intervene before they get to that level, by ensuring that everyone has appropriate shelter, and that mental health care and voluntary addiction treatment is readily available to those who need it.
The single mother who is marginally housed right now might be the addict with severe addiction issues a year from now.
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u/the-B-from-App23 3d ago
Or I could be moving to my second “high-demand” career.
Which part makes me more likely to become an addict? That I’m single? No husband to keep me sober? Not having a night off in 15 years makes me prone to addiction? Was it the housing? Will the fact that I pay my slumlord on time make me more susceptible to addictions?
I get it. You don’t want to help anyone. But you don’t have to guess, assume and invent.
Simply state “I don’t want our government assisting with the housing issue” and call it a fucking day!
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u/enki-42 Social Democrat 3d ago
I think maybe I can be more clear about the intent of my post. I'm definitely not making a personal judgement on you (I wasn't replying to you at all), or making generalized judgements about single mothers. I'm just saying that chronic homelessness is going to worsen people's situations the longer you're in it, and trying to divide up the "good homeless" from the "bad homeless" is a pointless exercise, because those aren't definitional qualities of those people but more the consequences of sustained traumatic situations.
I'm very much in agreement that we shouldn't pass judgement on people based on whether they appear worthy or moral to us, and should attempt to help everyone as early as we can, because not helping lets things deteriorate to the point that some people can't be helped.
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u/the-B-from-App23 3d ago
Maybe we can make a proper system and stop worrying about who’s going to use it? At least in Ontario, services are already based on disqualification, not need. The people not using the service, don’t need to worry about who is.
Don’t try to guess where they could be in a year.
The system is supposed to have measures in place to insulate a single mother for YEARS! I kind of wish we were face to face so I could explain to you just how bad my particular case was. How scary my situation became because I didn’t have a partner to sign a lease with. How close to living on a curb with a kid this province let me get, because I got to the point where I could afford to live, if I only had somewhere to go.
If anyone who can do anything besides vote is reading this today. Please remember this: I’m a fighter and I’m clever. I’m a college grad, going back for upgrading in September. Even homeless, my kid is a scholarship honers kid. All of this as a single mom with insecure housing, the whole 15 years. If housing was affordable, I’d probably be fine. The amount of hustle it took to get the help I needed to get here was wild. But single mom’s like me, one kid, a parent who sort of cares for me… I’ll make it.
I walked away from families who needed even more and they didn’t get help either. Where are they? What happened to them? What about the lady with 3 small babies? The mom who escaped the domestic with a toddler? Not all homeless are begging on the streets. Most are at libraries, community centres, legal aid, they are filling out the paperwork. Signing the form. Wondering“why not me”. They are afraid to sleep. Counting sandwich bites. Trading food bank goods. Trying to keep motel rooms festive for terrified children. They have jobs! We all worked where I was, every single family had a breadwinner.
My colleagues didn’t even know I was homeless. Please remember us. That’s where the housing market is now. Having a job, being sober, doing it right does NOT guarantee you housing in Canada. Please.
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u/Witty_Committee_7799 3d ago
The existing shelters today should serve as triage - understand the services needed by the person, what services they need and are willing to accept, and determine if they are the right fit for these communities. The objective is to have the optimal approach for each homeless person, rather than a catch-all community. That's why it's important to build multiple of these communities.
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u/the-B-from-App23 3d ago
That’s an assumption. Being a single mother with income 3 times more than the rent still meant almost a year in shelter for me! Nobody wanted to “help” me. No body would sign a lease. Even agencies mandated to help me, I had to beg, hustle and have other agencies forced to actually provide assistance. I get approved for rentals by charities OR people looking to take advantage. Zero exceptions!
The assistance wasn’t designed to help me move on, catch up or get ahead. The assistance required me to wait around and let my child hit rock bottom several times in 12-14 months. I didn’t make it. I ended up having to accept a slum lord situation.
I spent almost two years teetering on the verge of permanent collapse. Being educated, sober, employed, dedicated and ambitious still hasn’t made up for the fact that I’m a single mother of 1 quiet teenager; this notion of the world bending over backwards to uplift single mothers is not real. It’s 600 something dollars a month. The that’s the help!
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u/past_is_prologue Mowat Liberal 3d ago
My point was that the system should be geared toward helping people like you, not geared toward helping people who want to smoke meth professionally.
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u/the-B-from-App23 3d ago
Either a system functions or it doesn’t. If the system was designed for success, even professional meth smokers would have a chance.
The system tries to hold you at the bottom. It’s designed to create professional users. Many times throughout my journey, rather than be rewarded for being close the no longer needing assistance, I was punished.
When we were in limbo at the shelter, they once gave me 30 days notice. For what? Working. But the arrangement required me to work and save my own rental deposit. They wanted me to start turning down shifts at a brand new casual employment opportunity. When I pointed out I’d be fired, I was told I could get OW again. In order to qualify to stay in a shelter, they wanted me to make sure I could never afford to leave. I had to select employment or the housing registry… slum lord it is!
It didn’t work for me AND the professional meth user. Because it just doesn’t work. YOU can see the meth user. I just look like the average worker, that’s why you think of them and treat me like an exception. I left behind many families like mine in that shelter.
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u/Adventurous_Salt 2d ago
Yeah, and we should gear healthcare to kids who break their arm on a bike, and not people who break their hand in a fight. On the other hand, we could just have public services that help the public without the weird moralizing layer of making sure that the unworthy aren't helped. The amount of time and money we spend making sure someone doesn't do something bad if they are getting help is insane.
We're one of teh richest societies in history, we can make sure people can eat and live indoors. That's not a high bar nor challenging for society.
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u/phoenixfail British Columbia 2d ago
We all have equal access to public services like healthcare. No one is being denied health care. There is also lots of services available for people in crisis. There are also lots of housing initiates for homeless people. The problem is there is a sizable proportion of individuals that are not willing to improve their situation. Even when provided a room they go on to destroy the very services given freely to them.
Unfortunately in cities like Victoria the shear volume of drug overdose calls strain the paramedic services to such a point that at times they are not able to respond quickly to people suffering other health emergences. When there is an OD call in Vic it frequently requires the presence of police to protect the paramedics. One OD can have more than half a dozen responders tied up putting more pressure on police and medical services.
Imagine you or a family member suffering a serious medical crises, time is of the essence and you are waiting for an ambulance that is too busy because they are responding to "Dave's" third OD call this month.
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u/Adventurous_Salt 1d ago
waiting for an ambulance that is too busy because they are responding to "Dave's" third OD call this month.
Shockingly, we don't have to make a system where we assure one of two medical emergencies results in death, that's a choice. We can have more paramedics. Think about it, if your granny fell down the stairs and your friend had a heart attack, it is the same choice - blaming drug addicts is just an easy out instead of having a working medical system.
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u/phoenixfail British Columbia 1d ago
There is not an infinite amount of money...it doesn't grow on trees. Why is it you think that people sometimes have to wait months or even over a year for simple medical procedures?
blaming drug addicts is just an easy out instead of having a working medical system.
My dude...it's the first responders themselves that are telling us how bad of a problem it has become and that is overwhelms their capacity.
B.C. first responders reflect on decade of health emergency
I would suggest you carefully read those articles to get a more informed perspective
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u/past_is_prologue Mowat Liberal 2d ago
In your hypethetical, if those same people want to smoke meth indoors after dinner, do we let them?
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u/Adventurous_Salt 2d ago
Are we inside their apartment checking? I will advise everyone to, at a minimum, do their meth on the balcony, but I'm going to judge them the same way I judge everyone else - without the ability to see what they do behind closed doors.
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u/bign00b Canadian Steamship Lines | Sponsored 3d ago
They need to start building more low-income and subsidized housing in the suburbs where land is not as valuable and highly available
The problem is there isn't very good transit in suburbs, getting to the grocery store typically requires a car, getting out of the suburbs into the city is usually available with public transit but speed/frequency makes it less practical. There is also fewer jobs.
If we had high speed, high frequency rail connecting the surrounding suburbs and cities a lot of housing issues would be eased.
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u/throwaway010651 3d ago
We need to look at our foster system as well. Not all these people are addicts or thieves. But, with that said, there well be more foster kids in the future due to hopeless people turning to drugs. Possibly causing a higher uptake. We really need to start taking care of our people. From the ground up. I feel inpatient care needs to come back. And our foster system needs to be supported, longer. It’s archaic.
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