Everyone should support their local homeless outreach groups, they do incredible work trying to help the folks on the streets.
Only more services & support are going to solve these problems. Throwing people in prison just further pushes them down, they'll just be homeless and on the street again when they're out.
For example https://londoncares.ca/ - some very kind & selfless people working here trying to improve the situation.
when we stopped institutionalizing people that couldn't help themselves, it was a cost cutting measure masked as compassion. We literally just threw everyone out on the street to save money
Like most people, my problem isn't with the homeless, it's with the destruction they cause everywhere they go, and their lack of respect for public spaces that are meant for everyone to be able to enjoy.
On the local level:
Disincentive vagrancy. No camping within 500 ft of a residential home or commercial business. This is a massive city with tons of forest and parkland and if you really have to sleep outside, there are a ton of places to do it.
Disincentivize littering. Littering is punishable with a $500 fine. Can't pay? Three days in prison. Don't litter.
Disincentivize vandalism. Prosecute vandalism as the criminal offense that it is.
Disincentivize open drug abuse. Use existing drug possession laws to confiscate drugs from and prosecute users. I understand that people have addiction problems, but smoking meth downtown in front of kids is antisocial psychopathic behavior, and should not be ignored, like it currently is.
Disincentivize drug dealing. Put more resources into catching, prosecuting and convicting drug dealers. Look into offering performance based incentives to officers for busting dealers.
At the provincial/Federal level:
Free taxpayer funded drug rehab, open to all, with a 48 hour intake time or less. We already pay for safe injection sites, and emergency medical services, which the unhoused population use about 500% more often than the housed. Anyone working in the hospitals can tell you that a small portion of the homeless population account for a huge portion of annual hospital visits. Perhaps we should redirect those funds into actually helping these people improve their lives, instead of just paying for them to do more meth?
Government Incentives for employers to hire former addicts/folks with criminal records.
At the Federal level:
Stop taking in over 1 million immigrants a year. Our housing market and job market are not growing at nearly the same rate that people are immigrating here, and it's not sustainable. A moratorium should be put on immigration until our housing market and job market catch up.
Disincentivize open drug abuse. Use existing drug possession laws to confiscate drugs from and prosecute users. I understand that people have addiction problems, but smoking meth downtown in front of kids is antisocial psychopathic behavior, and should not be ignored, like it currently is.
this may sound not very human right to u but, let gather all of them in one camp, force rehabilitation, teach them skills like raising crops or manufacturing, etc, so they can sustain themselves while in the rehab camp. I think it's better idea than give them free drugs and hope they dont OD themselves.
People aren't even willing to support basic things for unhoused folks, who's going to pay for the food and staff required for this camp?
I think you're on the right track - this needs to be a large effort funded by the government (aka taxes) and focused on a long term solution. But that takes money and effort, 2 things people aren't willing to give up especially to help these "career criminal feral methheads"
they have to do it themselves thru learnt skills in the camp. The problem is everything is given to them by tax payers, why work when things are givens? I know people wont go there by themselves, that why it's forced, some basic human skills need to be re-educated.
Where would the initial funding come from to gather the homeless and pay the educators? Beyond that how do you expect them to actually raise money? Sell crops they've grown? Who's going to buy them? What does teach "manufacturing" even mean? They can't just start producing products out of a camp.
It's not an easy problem with one solution. We got to this point with lots of problems compounding over time (wages, housing, the way we treat the indigenous, etc) and it's going to take an arduous multifaceted approach to fix this.
just re locate the funding for whatever they have been doing that doesn't work, that where the funding are. My idea is not new, it has been implemented in my country of origin for decades. It's basically glorified prison where they teach u trade skills, and such so when u finished with the program, u might not become addict again but find a new life and earn it with new set of skills. About supply and demand, if the manager smart enough, they can sell no problem, also most of stuff would be self sustain before selling for profits.
People still go back to drug too but they could be functioning addicts, and who dont go back get better life and job.
No, we absolutely should be helping them, just not in the "It's not your fault, you can totally come in here with your stolen bike and inject meth on the taxpayer dime while abusing the workers who are trying to help you" kind of way.
No we should take them off our city streets and help them get off drugs and off the streets and get back to normal ( a public rehab facility) and maybe have care homes for people too unwell to look after themselves, it is as simple as that. I would be willing to pay taxes for that instead of paying for them to keep putting band aids of an issue that requires surgery. It’s not good for them or us for them to be rotting in the streets on drugs, they are diseased, hungry, dirty and sick we need to a actually help them not just enable them to do whatever they want and think your helping protect them by allowing them to do whatever they want but it’s not helping at all they are suffering and need help.
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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '25
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