The Homeless in Wintry Toronto

A homeless person sleeping, on a wintry day in 2015,
on a sidewalk of Toronto 

Photo courtesy: cbc.ca/

Another person sleeping on a snowy sidewalk
in Toronto in 2015 

Photo courtesy: National Post

Canada is a first-world country. Outsiders tend to think that this country has much fewer problems than less fortunate countries of the world. 

In reality, this country is not immune from poverty and homelessness. There are a good number of people who are poor and homeless. There are dozens of reasons for poverty and homelessness. Among these are the loss of job, addiction to either alcohol or drugs, divorce, mental illness, loss of government social assistance, inability to pay rents, lack of low-income housing, and lack of housing for low-income people. 

Cold wintry days make it all the more problematic for the homeless, 40% of whom suffer from some kind of mental illness. Many of them cannot cope with the crowded situation and refuse to go to any shelter. They prefer to suffer the cold days on the streets. The city of Toronto has a substantial number of such homeless people. 

You may read the following to have a glimpse at their situation:

• Volunteers hand out thousands of winter survival kits to GTA homeless (Jan. 21, 2019)
• Toronto digs in for another day of bitter cold (Jan. 21, 2019)
• Homeless couple says they were left out in the cold (Jan. 21, 2019) [Video]
• Homeless aid group makes a difference but demands change (Jan. 9, 2019)
• 'It's a horrible life out there': How frigid temperatures are impacting Toronto's homeless (Jan. 20, 2019)
• Toronto homeless told to leave tent cities despite fact shelters operating or over capacity (Jan. 14, 2019)
• Nearly 100 homeless people died in Toronto in 2017 (January 29, 2018)
• Toronto's new shelter plan just a short-term solution to homelessness, advocates say (Nov. 12, 2018)