Tax reform could help solve homelessness

Re Apathy will worsen the shelter crisis, Letter,

Oct. 10 I take exception to a headline on this letter. I do not believe Canadians are apathetic about the lack of shelter beds or the increasing number of homeless beggars on our streets. I know I am not, it greatly distresses me.

But I also know that a dollar or two handed out here and there will not address their many complex issues or put a roof over their heads, even if there was one to put them in, which there isn’t.

I like our prime minister. But all his government is doing is tinkering at the edges of a tax system that unjustly favours the super rich.

I am pleased with the provincial government’s decision to raise the minimum wage but my nieces and nephews have university degrees and decent jobs that pay more than $15 an hour, yet they can barely get by because their rent keeps rising exponentially. How are they ever going to be able to afford a home of their own, save for retirement or buy the stuff that keeps the economy rolling?

We need to overhaul our tax system to address this inequality and then use that money to raise the shelter allowance for welfare recipients and pensioners, and to provide tax breaks for investors to encourage them to build geared-toincome apartments across the country.

We could also fund trade schools that would teach the unemployed how to build starter homes for millennials and social housing and retirement buildings. Cathy Allen, Toronto