But when we’ve failed to deal with that problem by providing food and shelter for those people, we’ve tried to deal with it by further limiting the number of places they can go seeking temporary comfort. And in doing that — treating the symptom while the underlying disease has gotten worse — we’ve slowly been making Toronto a less comfortable, less convenient, less welcoming place for everyone in it.

Yep trying to inconvenience the homeless inconveniences all of us. What’s more insidious is that the places that remain “more friendly” to the un-housed then become known and well-frequented which puts immense pressure to following suit. Why can’t we give ourselves places we can just chill and forget our problems for a bit?

I don’t know how well it’s studied, but I’d wager that inhospitable architecture and infrastructure leads more homeless people to drugs to numb the pain of sleeping in uncomfortable spots.