Shorter Monte Solberg :

- Gosh, if only there were something like a Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development ... just think what we could accomplish then!

ReformaTory Alliance MP Monte Solberg, the Minister of Human Resources and Social Development, returned from a fact-finding trip to Portland Oregon to study their ten year plan to end homelessness and pronounced it "a terrific idea" but explained it wouldn't work here because "Portland regularly assesses the number of people on the street" and adjusts its programs accordingly.
Solberg :

"We don't have those kinds of measurements in place. We don't have an actual number we can point to in Canada to say we know there are this many people on the street in Canada at any one time.
If you're going to set any targets at all, you have to know where you're starting from and have some kind of measurement in place, and we don't have that today."

Yes, Monte, I absolutely agree you would definitely need to have some kind of fucking clue first.

Daphne Bramham at the Vancouver Sun, via Mostly Water :

"Canada has become the only developed country in the world that has neither a national housing plan or a national mental health strategy."

Very good article. Everything you wish you didn't already know about homelessness all on one page.
Cross-posted at Creekside