You take a two-month vacation that you saved for five years and find a group of people living

in your
house when you return. Put your clothes in the pockets. They rearranged your stuff. They also changed
the locks. It takes two weeks to get them out, two weeks to stay at your relatives’ house or a motel
down the road, and then you can’t afford it anymore. They say the back door is locked. They say it is
illegal. Wherever your heart is, they say.

It’s disgusting, sad, and disturbing. Homes are sanctuaries: places where people can feel safe and
secure.

And the thing is, no one is going to argue with you on this. No one has, and should never have the right
to enter your home without your permission. But this story is among the few, and it deserves to be
remembered. There have been just 112 reports of vacant homes in the past five years. The city has 1.2
million households. Think about it this way: Statistically speaking, homelessness is more likely to hit
homeless people than your home.

There are 17,890 homeless people in the city on any given night. About half of them are family groups,
and about 20% of them have families under the age of 12. More than 30% of women and children have
been separated from family or family violence. The impact of homelessness on people is enormous, and
children are particularly affected. Feelings of loneliness, insecurity, anxiety and depression are very
common. People experiencing homelessness often suffer from chronic and mental health problems,
experience stigma and discrimination, and have difficulty forming and maintaining relationships with
others. Before they are unemployed, they are more likely to be homeless or lonely or alone, and
education becomes increasingly difficult.

But consider this: According to the Census, 107,226 homes were available on census night 2015. That's 6
for every homeless person, inclusive children. Providing safe, secure, long-term housing when 90
percent of those homes are for people who are long-term vacationers, involved in legal disputes, or
uninhabitable because of asbestos or mold or the most destitute.

The thing is, no one is asking us to be homeless. But leasing and encouraging homeless shelters is
something that needs to be addressed now.

Their owners, in general, can be very intentional. Abandoned homes encourage wear and tear, fall-in,
and deterioration and rapidly depreciate property values. It is attacked by mice, rats and rodents. If left
unused, plumbing and electrical wiring can break and corrode. Owners will help with this. They mow
your lawn, weed the garden beds, and keep the house clean. Plumbers repair leaking pipes and replace
damaged power lines. As we say, homes are sanctuaries: places where you feel safe. The needy are the
homeless.

House prices are on the rise. The rent is going up. The median price for a three-bedroom house is
currently around $1 million, while the median price for a one-bedroom house is $1,000 a week, about
half the median income. People who can afford more than one home, and because of the tax avoidance
scheme, many people choose to keep their other homes tax-free, saying that they Instead of bad,
bad . . . . This will reduce rental availability and raise prices. In short, it won’t last.
Living in "abandoned" housing is a temporary solution to the affordable housing shortage. Eliminating
crime does more harm than good to the poor and needy in our society. When we stop focusing on
property rights, we start focusing on human rights.