Over 80,000 were homeless in Ontario in 2024, up at least 25% since 2022: AMO
Over 80,000 were homeless in Ontario in 2024, up at least 25% since 2022: AMO
The municipalities’ group wrote in a new report that the crisis ‘has deepened significantly’ and ‘is on a trajectory to get worse’
Quick, let's give more money to megacorps and business our way out of it! That'll fix it!
We can't just keep throwing money at help groups in hopes that will magically solve homelessness, we need to address the economic factors pushing people there, the high and ever increasing costs of living. From a ponzi scheme housing market to ever increasing groccery costs, people are being priced out of their apartments and homes.
We need to invest in affordable housing and transit, we need to break up the groccery cartels that keep getting away with price fixing, we need to slow immigration to ease the pressure on rental units, we need to rework the temporary foreign worker programs to be less exploitative which would open up more low skill jobs available to homeless populations.
But our governments don't want to do any of that because it hurts their sweet sweet profits and the oligarch shareholders. Best they can offer is some cash for local outreach groups that often don't have the resources to make meaningful change (at least compared to the reaources available to governments).
We can’t just keep throwing money at help groups
I mean, we could try. We certainly aren't providing adequate funding.
Lets spend $$$ on “the most ambitious study of homelessness conducted across Ontario” to show folks how much homeless people we have instead of how can we solve that problem without blaming the government for it...
Decisions are made on the basis of the numbers in studies, not on the basis of "it sure feels like there 27% more homeless people this year." Accurate data are essential. It is very difficult to take a census of the homeless population. Recent efforts with new methodologies improved our view considerably, and though they still undercount, represent a meaningful step to improving the situation.
My U.S. relatives: "But Canada is a Socialist country, right?"
Sure, sure it is.
It is unless you need medical care, housing, or food.
How wonder how quickly we'd solve homelessness if billionaires weren't allowed to be a thing.
Wealth hoarding, above all else, is the reason why we have poverty.