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Mayor John Tory and city council cannot solve Toronto’s homeless crisis alone.

It has been decades in the making.

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It began with provincial policies of de-institutionalizing the mentally ill.

The public was told this was to provide them with better lives in the community, but the real motive was to save money.

In the absence of providing necessary support services to the mentally ill, de-institutionalization meant they were often consigned, if not to the streets, then to a bug-infested bed in a rooming house or multi-year waiting lists for affordable housing.

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More recently, the federal government’s refusal to address the issue of illegal/irregular border crossers — and to accept full responsibility for the financial impact this has had on Toronto’s emergency shelter system, with 40% of the beds now occupied by them — has made a bad situation worse.

Add to that City Hall’s sanctuary policy, which removes the ability of the city to separate legitimate refugee claimants from queue-jumpers.