How to solve homeless issue?

[evandyk]

Good development. The few remaining people made it clear last week that they had no intention of ever accepting the housing the city was offering them, so there wasn't really any other option left.

 

[evandyk]

Really smart of them, of course, to wait until October to do it instead of May.

 

[PurplePinky]

City clears encampment from Toronto park after residents demanded permanent housing

The City of Toronto has cleared a homeless encampment at Dufferin Grove Park after a small group of remaining residents said they wouldn’t leave until they got permanent housing. City vehicles were seen removing tents and people’s belongings from the park this morning, with city security and...

toronto.citynews.ca

 

[Towered]

Really smart of them, of course, to wait until October to do it instead of May.

Exactly - right on time for the park not to be useful anymore for the next 8 months

 

[Admiral Beez]

A pretty even handed look by the Globe, from someone who’s obviously on the same neighbourhood listserv as I am.

In Dufferin Grove, a big tent of compassion for homeless encampments begins to fray

Even self-professed progressives are losing patience in this Toronto park – and the debate about housing and compassion is not unique

www.theglobeandmail.com

And on twitter, Dan Seljak makes the good point that if there’s a bunch of bylaw officers just standing around in the park anyways, they should ticket the lawless riffraff who let their dogs run around off leash constantly in the park.

I don’t usually refer to US-owned media’s take on Canadian issues, but this article in the NP is interesting.

'Don't go downtown!' Inside Canada's small-town homeless catastrophe

Menace, addiction and human despair have overwhelmed Canada's small towns and cities. Some say it's getting worse. Some just want to leave.

nationalpost.com

 

[Admiral Beez]

Some ideas here.

Can we fix Toronto’s homelessness crisis? This is what it could cost to build a home for every person living in our parks and streets

More than 1,600 people are living outdoors, many in encampments. The Star crunched the numbers and this is what it could take to build a home for every one of them.

www.thestar.com

Paywall free: https://archive.is/hZyZJ

 

[SubHuman]

Former mayor John Sewell yesterday in radio interview --
(Go to about 19:16 into this) https://www.iheart.com/podcast/962-...or-montagliani-fifa-vice-president-320023365/
"People in Toronto feel uneasy right now because of the number of homeless people that are everywhere. They're on the public transit, which makes you, sort of, you know ..." (He avoided finishing the sentence). " ... we gotta start providing a lot more housing."

Many are justifiably afraid to use public transit because of individuals who are having psychotic delusions. How did "homeless" somehow become the inaccurate and misleading euphemism for this? "Homeless" is largely irrelevant in these instances, and at best a misdiagnosis of their main issue that makes them problematic to themselves and the rest of us.
Politicians, misguided activist types and others use this euphemism to misdirect any discussion, and disingenuously pretend it's about poverty ("We need more affordable housing", etc.), instead of being about severe brain disorders that make the unfortunate victims unpredictably dangerous to themselves and sometimes others.
"More housing" does not cure severe brain disorders.

Admittedly it's a difficult topic to discuss, and there are no easy answers, but ignoring it and disingenuously pretending it doesn't exist, or is something else, is not helping anyone.