Over the past decade, media attention surrounding homelessness has been widespread, prompting Canadians to become increasingly concerned about a mounting social crisis.
Shelter usage has been growing and reputable surveys have been showing increases in the homeless population.
In the 1990s, after major cutbacks to social programs (including the cancellation of federal funding for new government-assisted housing units), pressure mounted on governments to respond.
By 1998, the mayors of Canada's big cities declared that homelessness had reached the point where it could be considered a "national disaster."
Opinion polls show that most Canadians are aware that homelessness has been increasing. Most also believe that the number of homeless people can be reduced.
A patchwork of government initiatives to provide both direct assistance to the homeless and new affordable housing has been announced since the late 1990s.
To date, however, government efforts have been too little, too late. Indeed, we have not come even close to matching the 25,000 affordable housing units built annually in Canada before the massive cuts of the 1990s.
Compounding the homelessness problem is the fact that increases to social assistance have been only nominal.
In real terms, social assistance benefit levels in Ontario – after having been ravaged during the Mike Harris years – are still lower than when the McGuinty government was first sworn into office in 2003.
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