The federal government says it can’t wait any longer for Ontario to end encampments in its cities and will offer money directly to municipalities, including Toronto, to fix the problem.
In a statement issued Tuesday, Housing Minister Sean Fraser said he sent a letter to every province and territory on Sept. 18 asking them to partner with Ottawa to “urgently” find shelter for the unhoused or those living in tents.
The offer includes a total of $250 million in funding in exchange for matching contributions by the provinces and territories.
However, Fraser said since the offer was made, the feds have not heard back from Ontario, Saskatchewan, and Alberta.
Why do so many people here think housing is the only issue here? Many of the people in the cities who are more notorious aren’t the kind of homeless people who would accept a home or your help. Let’s house everyone who needs it, but we have to accept that some people will need to be forcibly removed from the streets and forced into help. Otherwise you’ll have the same problem.
As someone who lives beside an urban park with a lot of people tenting in it, I do hear what you’re saying, and we do need to do both: house people who can accept it, and incarceration–humane, safe and rare–for people who can’t.