I am in charge of monitoring and reviewing the Canadian press coverage on homelessness. The things I have seen have truly changed me. I did not find out today that Edmonton is Canada's “frostbite capital”. These are isolated incidents, but if we look beyond the story, we can see there are indeed patterns. There are ways to do things everywhere, but this entire vision stems from the fact that homelessness is unacceptable. People need to have a decent income at the very least.
Furthermore, if we work on the first layer of support—that is, if we work to improve conditions for society as a whole—we'll prevent homelessness for a great many people. Think of homelessness as a kind of vortex that pulls you in and slowly drags you toward despair. If we can prevent people on the edge of the vortex from falling into it, we've made progress. The further people are inside the vortex, the more energy it takes to pull them out of a situation that is slowly leading them toward homelessness. It's just as difficult for people who are currently experiencing homelessness.
It's a good thing that cities want to take action. Much of the authority lies with the provincial government, and the funding is there, among other things. We need to help them.
There must be genuine collaboration between the federal, provincial and municipal governments to avoid duplication and to be as effective as possible.