Nothing is more ludicrous than Toronto's recipe for life-long poverty and misery in slum housing owned by the city and run by its billion-dollar bureaucracy. Apparently Toronto takes welfare recipients cheques, subtracts a modest amount for housing costs and gives the adult recipient the change, a few hundred dollars to scrape by on until the next "allowance" is handed out. Few escape Toronto's hand-to-mouth pocket change trap, turning a temporary rough spot into decades and even inter-generational poverty.

Naturally Toronto is eager to repeat and even offer more of this "help." But surely people deserve to escape Toronto's clutches.

Government must revert to the 1970s environment where even low-wage workers could purchase modest starter housing to get a toehold in the economy. It's time to tax speculators (foreign and domestic) and roll out a self-funded national housing program to get even the poorest and most disabled persons into their own starter housing.