In this essay Maria Wallstam and Nathan Crompton provide an overview of the historical evolution of government subsidies provided to Canada’s real-estate sector. State-backed financing and mortgage insurance for the big banks have cost the public billions over the course of several decades – but it’s not the only way to do housing.

In recent months we have witnessed a moral panic over shoplifting and the rise of terms such as “violent shoplifting.” Journalists and “experts” have pushed this narrative along, but a quick browse of mainstream media articles suggests that the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) has been a major force in pushing public fear over shoplifting.

The daily seizure and destruction of belongings is part of the systematic decimation of encampments. This violence has happened in cities far and near, including Vancouver and Prince George, but also Toronto, Victoria, Nanaimo, Coquitlam, Maple Ridge, Los Angeles, Boston and many others. Cities aim to “invisiblize” unhoused people rather than create more livable housing.

With Larwill Place set to close and 700 modular housing units at risk the crisis is set to worsen, argues Jean Swanson. “We are [also] losing a lot of low-income units to fires, to rent increases, to demolitions for redevelopment, to scuzzy landlords who take advantage of vulnerable tenants to just lock them out (like at the Melville Rooms just recently), and because leases on the temporary modulars aren’t being renewed.”