“Homelessness & Affordability Crisis”

A slim majority of Canadians believe that reducing home prices is more important than keeping them stable, but most still feel that housing affordability is unlikely to improve in the next five years, according to a new poll.

The survey, conducted for The Globe and Mail by Nanos Research, found that 52 per cent of Canadians said reducing prices was necessary, while only 35 per cent felt prices should be kept stable. Thirteen per cent of respondents were unsure.

The wallet Isidoro Ventullo pulls out to try and pay for brunch at a restaurant in Little Italy is makeshift — a patch of grey duct tape stitched together like a foldable envelope. In it, he has neatly folded in his photo ID, some smaller denominations and a yellow flash card bearing a list of essential phone numbers and names.

At his stage in life, the 91-year-old is determined to hold on to what is familiar — whether it’s a tattered wallet or the neighbourhood he calls home.

It’s partly why more than a month after being evicted from his apartment in Little Italy in the midst of a heat wave, he has yet to find a permanent place to live.

Jeffrey Dowell and Barbara Poushinsky’s home in the rural community of Rideau Ferry, Ont., about an hour outside Ottawa, has a barn-style gable roof and chipper red siding. Inside, the high ceiling, large windows and open-concept layout in the kitchen-living room give the home a modern feel, while wooden pillars throughout the space add a rustic touch.

The 1,200-square-foot house is chic and homey, and kitted out with features that will help the retired couple age in place. You’d never know much of it was built in a factory and delivered to their property on the back of a truck.

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread.” — Anatole France, from The Red Lily.

In 2014, Vancouver Sun reporter Lori Culbert and I wrote a weeklong series of stories identifying the government social welfare programs — and their cost to taxpayers — in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

The numbers were staggering …

Along a busy street on the west end of downtown, another new rental building is going up — but instead of being built from scratch, prefabricated units are being craned into place, piece by piece.

Each box being stacked contains two studio apartments, already filled with appliances like fridges, stoves, washers and dryers.

Altogether, the pieces will make up 84 studio apartments across six storeys.