Day 271 of 365 - Vulnerable Citizens
In the city where I live, it has become much more commonplace to see temporary encampments of homeless people. These have always existed to some extent, but used to be mainly tucked away, behind bushes in parks, or along the edge of the river. Now, it is not at all unusual to see them right in the downtown, close to one of the main shelters. A tarp might be draped over a fence or shopping cart, with an array of belongings tucked beneath.
I've been wondering why we are seeing more and more evidence of homelessness here. Recently, I read a very comprehensive article about the situation in Toronto, and I believe that the root causes are similar here. The homelessness crisis is a result of conditions that have been gradually worsening over many years. The social housing system is broken, due to under-investment from all levels of government. That, combined with increasing rents, which have not been matched by increases in wages or income, has made it more and more difficult for even the working poor to find housing. Shelter systems are overburdened and simply cannot accommodate everyone.
Sometimes, we might want to dismiss the homeless as people who are addicts or have otherwise made poor life choices, rendering them unable to work and pay their own way. While, to be sure, those people are certainly a part of the homeless population, it now includes a much broader range.
There have always been people who are down on their luck, due to physical or mental health problems, unemployment or domestic abuse situations. In the past, they maybe needed the temporary support of a shelter system or social assistance. Now, it has become nearly impossible for those on social assistance to find affordable housing. With rental vacancies being very low, landlords have their pick of tenants.
Is this just a problem of a growing population? Apparently not. It's a result of economic changes and political decisions over the past fifty years or so.
It used to be that governments and corporations felt a social responsibility to look after citizens, by providing fair wages, cost of living adjustments and controls on rents and housing costs. The marginalized members of society were cared for. Now, everything is about corporate profit. Employers keep cutting staff and benefits and decreasing job security to minimize costs and increase profits. Workers seldom get raises, but executives continue to get their bonuses. Housing and rental costs have skyrocketed. Affordable housing is supposed to cost below 30 percent of income. Even people with good jobs are now finding that harder to achieve.
I was alarmed to read, for example, that the average rent for a studio apartment in Toronto is now as much as we pay for our three bedroom apartment here! While rents are not yet that high in my city, they are certainly edging up year by year. If the trend continues, more and more of us will not be able to afford our current standard of living.
Social housing used to be built in reasonable numbers every year, and a percentage of new rentals were subsidized for those in need. Then, the federal government cut funding for this kind of housing and transferred responsibility to the provinces, who then offloaded it to municipalities. New social housing construction trickled to nothing by 1997. New programs since then have only been a small fraction of what was built before. Supply has simply not met demand for many years.
Cities have tended to focus in recent years on temporary emergency responses as the most affordable way to address homelessness. Churches and charitable organizations have tried to bridge the gap by creating drop in centers and providing daily meals. While a worthy attempt to meet immediate needs, this does not make economic sense in the long run. The cost of supporting a homeless person in traditional shelters for a year is more than twice what it would cost to provide affordable housing. Massive investments from all levels of government would be required to solve homelessness, and we all know this is not likely a high priority.
The disenfranchised among us have always been a symptom of our societal failings. What used to be hidden on the periphery of our awareness has now become an obvious blight on our cities. It's just one more wake up call for our communities and a sad commentary for our first world country, on how we fail to take care of one another.
I've been wondering why we are seeing more and more evidence of homelessness here. Recently, I read a very comprehensive article about the situation in Toronto, and I believe that the root causes are similar here. The homelessness crisis is a result of conditions that have been gradually worsening over many years. The social housing system is broken, due to under-investment from all levels of government. That, combined with increasing rents, which have not been matched by increases in wages or income, has made it more and more difficult for even the working poor to find housing. Shelter systems are overburdened and simply cannot accommodate everyone.
Sometimes, we might want to dismiss the homeless as people who are addicts or have otherwise made poor life choices, rendering them unable to work and pay their own way. While, to be sure, those people are certainly a part of the homeless population, it now includes a much broader range.
There have always been people who are down on their luck, due to physical or mental health problems, unemployment or domestic abuse situations. In the past, they maybe needed the temporary support of a shelter system or social assistance. Now, it has become nearly impossible for those on social assistance to find affordable housing. With rental vacancies being very low, landlords have their pick of tenants.
Is this just a problem of a growing population? Apparently not. It's a result of economic changes and political decisions over the past fifty years or so.
It used to be that governments and corporations felt a social responsibility to look after citizens, by providing fair wages, cost of living adjustments and controls on rents and housing costs. The marginalized members of society were cared for. Now, everything is about corporate profit. Employers keep cutting staff and benefits and decreasing job security to minimize costs and increase profits. Workers seldom get raises, but executives continue to get their bonuses. Housing and rental costs have skyrocketed. Affordable housing is supposed to cost below 30 percent of income. Even people with good jobs are now finding that harder to achieve.
I was alarmed to read, for example, that the average rent for a studio apartment in Toronto is now as much as we pay for our three bedroom apartment here! While rents are not yet that high in my city, they are certainly edging up year by year. If the trend continues, more and more of us will not be able to afford our current standard of living.
Social housing used to be built in reasonable numbers every year, and a percentage of new rentals were subsidized for those in need. Then, the federal government cut funding for this kind of housing and transferred responsibility to the provinces, who then offloaded it to municipalities. New social housing construction trickled to nothing by 1997. New programs since then have only been a small fraction of what was built before. Supply has simply not met demand for many years.
Cities have tended to focus in recent years on temporary emergency responses as the most affordable way to address homelessness. Churches and charitable organizations have tried to bridge the gap by creating drop in centers and providing daily meals. While a worthy attempt to meet immediate needs, this does not make economic sense in the long run. The cost of supporting a homeless person in traditional shelters for a year is more than twice what it would cost to provide affordable housing. Massive investments from all levels of government would be required to solve homelessness, and we all know this is not likely a high priority.
The disenfranchised among us have always been a symptom of our societal failings. What used to be hidden on the periphery of our awareness has now become an obvious blight on our cities. It's just one more wake up call for our communities and a sad commentary for our first world country, on how we fail to take care of one another.
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