How widespread are the homeless/mental health/addiction issues in your city/province?

[giallo]

After being away from Canada for 20 years, I arrived back late last year. It's wonderful being back home, and I've found getting back into the swing of things quite a bit easier than I had initially thought. One thing that I've noticed though, is how much worse the mental health/homeless/addiction issues are, and that they are abundant everywhere I go in BC.

Vancouver has always had some serious issues. Homelessness is nothing new, but it seems far more widespread throughout the city these days, and the introduction of fentanyl and a new form of meth has really made a visual mark on the people that use them. The people on the street seem far more erratic, and a danger to themselves, and, of course, others.

What I've found particularly surprising is how bad it is outside of Vancouver. I've recently made my way to Terrace, BC for work, and it's beautiful. The entire area between Smithers to Terrace is drop dead gorgeous, and a trip that everyone should do if given the opportunity. One of the biggest surprises, besides the beauty of the area, is that Terrace suffers from the exact same issues Vancouver does. The downtown of Terrace is home to a lot of people suffering from mental health issues and serious drug abuse. When talking with the locals, it's something that's only happened in the past few years, and they're still trying to wrap their heads around how a small, prosperous town like Terrace has so many issues like this.

My hometown of Kelowna has these issues, especially downtown. It's noticeable everywhere you go. A lot of people in need of serious help left to self-medicate using stepped-on, unregulated drugs.

Is this just a BC thing? Have you noticed a major uptick in addiction and homelessness in your area?

[theman23]

I think there’s been a change over the last 8 years. Vagrancy has been an issue in Toronto usually restricted to downtown, but it’s spread to the suburbs in recent years. BC is probably the worst off in Canada, but it still pales in comparison to the USA where even small villages have their own skid row. After being away for about two years, the difference in my visits back has been pretty noticeable. Not making excuses for Canada, because there’s clearly a rot in both our societies that tends to get handwaved away because unemployment numbers are low.

[thurmas]

Winnipeg has gotten much much much worse since covid and has spread to many of our suburbs and our downtown has gone in a real downward spiral since covid and struggling to get back on its feet big time.

[theman23]

I think COVID has just accelerated the trend. The situation was changing for the worse prior to the pandemic in the areas that I’m familiar with.

[Hecate]

I live in a rural community just north of Winnipeg near birds hill provincial park… there are homeless people in the park. They live in the bush and use the change rooms for water and showers and bathrooms. In Selkirk a small city north of Winnipeg where I work, has homelessness and the youth with meth addictions are ridiculously high. A coworker trying to help her daughter found her daughters boyfriend dead on the floor in their house. Another coworkers kids are in rehab. Another coworker daughter is addicted but refusing treatment. Heartbreaking to see this shit happening to good people.

[casper]

It has become worse in Victoria.

The local shelter here is My Place. They likely do a good job of meeting the immediate needs of food and shelter.

A year of two ago I had a look at their annual report and what is disappointing is how few people graduate from the programs the have to get people out of that situation. Certain that is not an easy problem to solve.

The provincial government had an emergency program where they purchased some of the low or mid market hotels at the start of the pandemic and turned them over to the aid societies to run. Most of those buildings are now being rehabilitated and sold off.

[rousseau]

The stoplights near the exits from the highway in Kitcher now have homeless folks on the curb island begging with signs. Used to be rare, now they're everywhere.

All white folks too, interestingly enough. There's no racial diversity in the homeless population in KW from what I've seen.

[Hali87]

Halifax seems to have mostly been spared the fentanyl-and-meth-related issues prevalent in many other cities. On the other hand, homelessness has increased dramatically, shelters are overwhelmed, and this year the city has designated 4 specific parks for makeshift tent cities. There have been several unauthorized tent cities over the last few years (including one a couple blocks from my house) and the city has tried to build their own shelters but they took about 10x longer to build than expected, don't actually house many people, and don't seem like they could be politically sustainable for more than a few years due to their locations. The Catholic Church has built a bunch of huts on church properties throughout the city for homeless people to sleep in. Things will continue to get worse before they get better.

[le calmar]

I regularly see people begging in Kanata and Barrhaven, which was unheard of before. Seen them in the suburbs of Kingston too. There was a very prominent homeless camp along the 401 in Brockville that was dismantled recently. In Ottawa, the homeless tend to be more present around the Byward Market. Nothing new there, but there’s definitely more of them.

[MonctonRad]

It's horrible in Moncton, with many homeless encampments in the downtown, especially around the railway tracks. Drug use is a definite problem, along with vagrancy and panhandling. From the sounds of it though, this seems to be a country wide problem.

[Acajack]

It has definitely increased tremendously here as well.

And it started about a year or two before the pandemic.

Before it was entirely confined to downtown, about 10 km from here. Now panhandlers are a regular sight about 2 km from where I live.

They are also seen quite a bit further out too.

The drug issue is not really on the radar much here. At least no more than 20-30 years ago.

[Acajack]

I also see the videos coming out of Vancouver, and am lucid enough to know that something of that nature will probably be coming to most of our cities eventually.

[GreaterMontréal]

There is no ''organized'' tent city in Montreal. Not tolerated by the fire department and the city. The winter is also a pretty good reason.

[Coldrsx]

Edmonton, especially Downtown and the Central NE has been at level 11 during the pandemic and even a couple years earlier. There were times during COVID that I swear that 'normal' people were sadly outnumbered by those with very clear addiction/mental health issues and to be honest some outright criminals looking for crimes of opportunity. The erosion and deterioration of safety was significant and even the public areas were having a ton of vandalism from folks angry or clearly high.

LRT stations because actual safety issues (some trains too).

Chinatown is a mess and incredibly impacted by drug use, mental health issues, disorder and theft.

Our condo in Downtown Edmonton had more break-ins/thefts in the last two years as the last 17yrs combined.

It is getting a lot of attention locally and thankfully/finally a lot of resources and support from various organizations, but it has turned a lot of folks off of living centrally, working in the area and investing.

Part of the reason my condo is listed is because my gf did not feel safe to walk the pup in the mornings and evenings if I was not with her.

My car had two attempted break-ins in the last 3 yrs, zero in the 14yrs before that in that location.

We also have 3 homeless people living in and around the building/bushes which while generally harmless tends to add to some perception issues.

Overall a very sad state of affairs for many of our fellow humans and we must continue to find more supportive paths forward for them.

---

Canmore certainly has addition/drug issues and a very small amount of visible homelessness, but is impressively safe and without much crime it seems outside of the usual bike issues.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by GreaterMontréal

There is no ''organized'' tent city in Montreal. Not tolerated by the fire department and the city. The winter is also a pretty good reason.

Well there was a large one (last summer?) out in the east end along Notre-Dame was there not?

I think there was a fire that destroyed a number of tents.

The police also moved in to dismantle the camp at one point after that.

Note that while I may be in the minority thinking like this on here, I don't actually think that this is primarily related to the housing crisis we also talk about a lot - which is definitely a crisis but ironically not a direct correlation with homelessness, panhandling and vagrancy.

A lot of the stuff we're discussing in this thread is "opportunity". The encampments exist because you can set them up with relative impunity. There are now small-scale encampments in all sorts of cities that are not Vancouver - even in my city of Gatineau I know of at least one. These people have to go somewhere in the winter and most do not travel 5000 km to Vancouver just to spend a few months of winter there.

Also, there is the issue of mental health programs and supports for people who have those problems - which is not really related to the housing crisis.

In terms of panhandling I am pretty sure it is technically against the law most everywhere in Canada but it hasn't really been cracked down on in decades.

In the Ottawa-Gatineau area many of those beggars on arterial roads outside of downtown are sometimes ferried there by dudes in vehicles in the morning, and then these same guys come and pick them up at the end of their day's "work".

[hipster duck]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Note that while I may be in the minority thinking like this on here, I don't actually think that this is primarily related to the housing crisis we also talk about a lot - which is definitely a crisis but ironically not a direct correlation with homelessness, panhandling and vagrancy.

Yes, I think you're right. The housing affordability crisis is one of middle class and professional people not being able to afford to buy homes, not of poor people not being able to afford shelter (rent).

Rents in Canadian cities are pretty reasonable relative to incomes. Here are some quick comparisons, using the rents that governments use to determine housing assistance policies:

Toronto:
Average monthly 1-BR rent: CAD 1,446 (source)
Average (mean) monthly personal income (2020): CAD 4,391 ($52,700/12) (source) - (note: this is a CMA stat; I had to use average income, because I couldn't find a median personal income stat for SF)
Rent:Income ratio: 0.33

San Francisco:
Fair market rent (1BR): USD 2,631 (source)
Average (mean) monthly personal income (2020): USD 6,003 (USD 72,041/12) (source)
Rent:Income ratio: 0.44

[Acajack]

My kids and their friends (a couple of years under and couple of years over 20) are looking to be the main victims of the housing crisis, but barring some catastrophic "life derail", at this point I don't see any of them living in tents or on the streets at any point in their lives.

BTW plenty of countries in the world are nations of renters and apartment dwellers where owning property (especially spacious ones offering decent privacy) is only for the very richest population tranche.

While not necessarily desirable, we wouldn't be a global outlier if that ends up being our future.

[hipster duck]

Originally Posted by Acajack

BTW plenty of countries in the world are nations of renters and apartment dwellers where owning property (especially spacious ones offering decent privacy) is only for the very richest population tranche.

Other than FOMO and the ability to build some wealth security for later in life, the two other big issues with renting in Canada vs. buying are:

1. The threat of being evicted if your landlord wants to sell/redevelop, etc.

2. Not enough large rental spaces if you want to start a family with children

If we had more of a culture of large, institutional landlords that wanted to hold on to properties and tenants, rather than small mom and pop landlords - especially those who live in the same property they rent out - and if we could find a way to subsidize the development of more 2 and 3-BR rentals that actually have decent layouts, then we'd go a long way to solving our housing issues without dealing with housing price affordability per se.

Quebec has always been better than the ROC on both of these, but recently things have started to turn around at least here in Toronto on the purpose-built rental front. Getting rental developers to build larger units is still a challenge, though.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by rousseau

The stoplights near the exits from the highway in Kitcher now have homeless folks on the curb island begging with signs. Used to be rare, now they're everywhere.

All white folks too, interestingly enough. There's no racial diversity in the homeless population in KW from what I've seen.

almost every major intersection in London has homeless folks on the concrete median begging with signs. Mostly white with a few natives.

It has definitely gotten worse, even as the unemployment rate plumbs new lows. Drugs and mental health are seemingly insurmountable issues. I found street begging to be just as terrible in Scandinavia and Europe. Even Japan has a dirty secret of widespread homelessness.

[MonctonRad]

I think the one unifying reason for the homelessness crisis is that some people have great difficulties in coping with the complexities of modern life.

In the old days, if you had a low grade mental illness, or if you were poorly educated, or if you generally had difficulty dealing with stressful situations, you could still get by with a menial job (manual labourer etc), and could get housing in a boarding house. The work kept you busy, and your room in the boarding house kept you off the street. You may still have had a relatively meaningless existence, but you were invisible and were out of trouble.

Nowadays, untrained manual labour jobs don't exist any more. Low level employment still exists in fast food etc, but rooming houses don't exist anymore, and the low wages are not enough to pay for even a bachelor apartment. Life is also a lot more complex these days than it used to be. Everything is online, and everyone needs a cellphone, and at least enough computer literacy to learn how to use apps and to pay your bills and apply for jobs online. This can be difficult if you have poor literacy, poor command of the English language, or if you have a stress/anxiety disorder. Nowadays, it is difficult to find people to give you first hand assistance. You are expected to do everything yourself.

This expectation of self sufficiency in turn makes thing even worse. If you have poor coping skills in the first place, and you have nowhere to turn for help, this will only increase your stress and anxiety levels. To deal with this heightened anxiety, you turn to drugs and alcohol, which makes things worse, and increases the likelihood of homelessness, petty crime and panhandling. It is a vicious cycle.

We need to provide these people with borderline coping skills and stress/anxiety disorders the resources necessary to remain productive in society. A boarding house can be something like an assisted living facility. We need these more than we need low income apartments (if you ask me). We also need to maintain at least some basic manual labour jobs for the marginalized so that they are able to survive. Finally, we need to provide the addicted with both short term and long term support for their addictions. We need to send them to drug treatment centres (even against their will), and once they have dried out, return them to halfway facilities in their home towns while at the same time supporting their reentry into the workplace, and support groups so they can form friendships with other people with similar troubles that they can relate to.

And, as for the drug pushers, no kid gloves treatment for them! I would support a "two strikes and your out" principle. If you are caught pushing even just a second time, then you are removed from society for at least 20 years. Maybe not a jail, but special work camps in the woods sounds about right. These people are the true bain on our existence.