Several European countries follow a Housing First policy. This considers permanent housing as the foundation for solving homelessness. It shifts the focus from emergency shelters to stable homes that are supported by health and social services. Unhoused people are offered comfort and security. Above all, those in need are helped with addiction and psychological or other health issues.
Homelessness often follows the loss of established social ties with family and friends. This may lead to substance abuse, loss of direction and profound isolation. Street-based social groups can provide practical and emotional support to the homeless. This is overlooked by some outside observers, but is a factor that sustains this way of life. Lack of trust of people outside the groups is a barrier to change.
Finland and Norway stand out for major long-term reductions in homelessness using Housing First models. Other European nations have had a fair degree of success, while efforts in some regions have been less productive. The fact is that half-measures don’t work. Nations need to be fully committed to ending homelessness.
The 21st century has seen an explosion in the number and wealth of billionaires, driven largely by financial market surges, deregulation, and favourable tax policies.
It is no coincidence that historic levels of global wealth inequality have gone hand in hand with conspicuous levels of poverty and homelessness.
Categories: Housing, Inequality
in-sights.ca 
Enriching the already rich?
Click to access MEDIA-RELEASE-living-the-high-life.pdf
“100 highest-paid CEOs now make 248 times more than average workers in record-breaking year”
“OTTAWA—Canada’s 100 highest-paid CEOs smashed every compensation record on the books in 2024 as average workers fell behind due to inflation, according to a new report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). In Living the High Life: A record-breaking year for CEO pay in Canada, CCPA Senior Economist David Macdonald shows that those 100 CEOs got paid a whopping average of $16.2 million in 2024. This amount surpasses their previously record-breaking pay of $14.9 million in 2022 and sets a new all-time high in Canada.”
“They now make 248 times more than the average worker wage in Canada, besting even their previous high of 246 times the average worker wage in 2022.”
““The top CEOs make $7,812 an hour, so it only takes a little over eight hours to make the $65,548 annual pay of the average worker. By January 2 at 9:23 a.m., those CEOs had already gotten what the average worker makes in a year,” says Macdonald. “The rich are living the high life while regular Canadians and workers struggle with inflation.””
“Inflation is pushing up costs, and salaries are not keeping up. In 2024, the average worker in Canada got a pay increase of 15 per cent. Meanwhile, average rent went up by 26 per cent and utilities by 23 per cent—while food prices climbed too. Beef was up by 39 per cent, chicken by 27 per cent, and pasta by 47 per cent. All of this means that workers took an effective pay cut of three per cent in 2024.”
“The top 100 CEOs, on the other hand, have seen their compensation rise a massive 49 per cent since 2020.”
https://crooksandliars.com/2026/01/it-took-study-prove-scotus-rules-favor#google_vignette
By Susie Madrak — January 5, 2026
“I did not know this! Supreme Court justices take two oaths. The first is a promise to support the Constitution. The second, a judicial oath, is more specific. It requires them, among other things, to “do equal right to the poor and to the rich.” Haha, they’re just kidding right?”
“A new study being released on Monday from economists at Yale and Columbia contends that the Supreme Court has in recent decades fallen short of that vow.”
“The study, called “Ruling for the Rich,” concludes that the wealthy have the wind at their backs before the justices and that a good way to guess the outcome of a case is to follow the money.
The study adds to what Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, in a dissent in June, called “the unfortunate perception that moneyed interests enjoy an easier road to relief in this court than ordinary citizens.””
“The study found that the Supreme Court has become deeply polarized in cases pitting the rich against the poor, with Republican appointees far more likely than Democratic ones to side with the wealthy. That is starkly different from the middle of the last century, when appointees of the two parties were statistically indistinguishable on this measure.”
“The general critique is not new, and it may figure in the drop in public confidence in the court in recent years, as opinion polls show.”
“In a 2021 book, “Supreme Inequality,” Adam Cohen, an author and former member of The New York Times’s editorial board, argued that “the court’s decisions have lifted up those who are already high and brought down those who are already low.””
From the general to the specific..
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https://www.propublica.org/article/todd-blanche-crypto-doj-trump
“Top DOJ Official Shut Down Enforcement Against Crypto Companies While Holding More Than $150,000 in Crypto Investments”
“Before Todd Blanche could be confirmed as the second-highest official at the Justice Department, he had to satisfy the concerns of ethics officials.”
“Blanche, President Donald Trump’s personal attorney during his New York criminal trial last year, was a cryptocurrency investor with holdings of between $159,000 and $485,000, records show.”
“To prevent possible violations of the federal conflicts of interest statute, Blanche promised to dump his digital assets no later than 90 days after his Senate confirmation in March, according to his government ethics agreement. He also pledged not to participate in any matter that could have a “direct and predictable effect on my financial interests in the virtual currency” until his Bitcoin and other crypto-related products were sold.”
“But about a month into the job — before divesting — Blanche issued a memo that ordered an end to investigations into crypto companies, dealers and exchanges launched during President Joe Biden’s term. He also eliminated an enforcement team dedicated to looking for crypto-related fraud and money-laundering schemes. And his memo said the Justice Department would assist Trump’s crypto working group of experts and Cabinet members that went on to issue a list of recommendations aimed at making the United States the global leader in digital coins.”
“Blanche’s directives, while he still owned significant crypto investments, violated the conflicts of interest law and his ethics agreement, legal experts and former federal ethics officials told ProPublica.”
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