When a country as prosperous as Canada cannot meet the shelter and housing needs of the most vulnerable and marginalized, this is an indicator of a profound crisis. It signals the failure of the dominant market-driven model for providing housing and personal security. We are approaching a level of displacement that Canada has not witnessed since the Great Depression.
“Where are we supposed to go?” This kind of question, carefully considered, does a good job of exposing the problem people face and with our response to homelessness. We are all born involuntarily into this world, into a country, and we are told that almost everything around us already belongs to someone else. If you can’t afford those things, well too bad for you. Those that were here before you have ensured there are laws to stop you from simply walking into a field and setting up shelter. How can we justify telling someone without economic means, who didn’t ask to be here, that they must forgo what would otherwise be natural? To forgo establishing shelter and a permanent home? If society and the government that represents it are going to restrict self- sufficiency in doing what is natural to us in this case, I feel the government then has an obligation to provide other options. Where else are people supposed to go?