Housing
Canada has a housing problem. It's a global problem. The problem is visible as people sleeping on the sidewalk. We have tent encampments in parks. More hidden; it's a proximate cause of skyrocketing rents.
I don't think it's a problem that a free market can alleviate. The market has to build housing that is profitable for the developer. Luxury units are profitable but are only housing for people who are relatively rich.
I live in a building owned by a non-profit whose mandate is to provide housing at below market rents. It's a good place. My apartment is very small but it fits my needs. The neighbors are all friendly. Almost all my needs are within easy walking distance. It's a nice place.
Before I came here I was living illegally in an artist's studio. I liked it there - my kind of chaotic space. But a nice woman named Judy Graves from the city took me out for coffee and told me that I had to move and that she had a place nearby that I could move to. Here I am a quarter century later.
As we chatted Judy told me that it is very hard to house people who have been homeless for even 6 months. She said that they get to be 'feral'; they lose the habits that make it easy to live in housing. I knew what she meant. The place above the studio was a flophouse and lots of the people there weren't even able to keep water in the plumbing. I had plastic sheets set up to direct the floods into the sink.
I've always been a renter and to a certain extent I'm a bit feral myself - I don't have the habits a person needs to be a home owner. I earned pocket money as a kid by mowing lawns but I had no desire to own a lawn as an adult.
I read an article about modular housing from CBC:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/modular-housing-sweden-u-s-canada-1.7647182
These are housing units that are pre-assembled in a factory and transported to the building site. The factory has automated tools for assembling the units of a building. Some people complained that the building was too boxy; nobody would want to live there. I beg to differ. But I do think that they could be making smaller units available too.
There is an 800 lb gorilla in the room that must be acknowledged, (well one of many actually),
that is; that many people are crazy (to use the vernacular). There are people that one is nervous to even share a sidewalk with as they pass. One wouldn't want them as neighbors or tenants.
Housing provides many benefits. Having a door to lock and a place that's warm and dry is very important. So is electricity and running water. So is having an address.
Somehow, in a society as rich as ours, housing should be a right.
What do you think?
I present regular philosophy discussions in a virtual reality called Second Life.
I set a topic and people come as avatars and sit around a virtual table to discuss it.
Each week I write a short essay to set the topic.
I show a selection of them here.