I've lived in downtown Toronto for nearly 14 years now, and I am also tired of the homeless. I'm tired of being harassed, sworn at, and threatened -- usually not overtly, but implicitly through under-the-breathe comments, body language, and those who follow me down the sidewalk even after my initial polite declining of their request. These things don't happen that often, but when they do they are very unsettling, and I don't think it should be politically incorrect to openly state that some solution needs to be found for the huge numbers of homeless in our cities -- for everyone's sake.
However, I'm quite bothered by the attitude of most non-city dwellers that homelessness is a "Toronto problem" or a "downtown problem". The homeless in our cities originate in all parts of the country: in the suburbs, rural areas, small towns, and reservations. They migrate to the city because it offers at least some semblance of support, a shelter system (inadequate as some feel it is) and anonymity to blend into the background without feeling like the town's freak show.
It is the failure of Canadian society as a whole to provide for those who cannot support themselves -- either because of mental health problems, physical health problems, economic tragedy, drug addiction, or some other reason. Despite the myth of "small town good will" that continues, in reality there is often little tolerance, acknowledgment or support for the seriously disadvantaged, addicted, or mentally ill in many smaller communities. For the price of a bus ticket they eventually escape to the big city, where they then become our problem, and our problem alone.
Homelessness is unpleasant, but it exists: those of us in the city who see it every day have to face this fact; some are moved to help. Those who live elsewhere have the luxury of pretending homelessness does not exist, and of disparaging those areas where it does exist, but in the end it is a problem that belongs to all Canadians.
