Canada's safety net is better than the USA but it's not as good as many places in Europe. I lived in Amsterdam for a year and in that time saw maybe 2 homeless

Canada's safety net is better than the USA but it's not as good as many places in Europe. I lived in Amsterdam for a year and in that time saw maybe 2 homeless people. One law they had was if a building has been empty for over a year you're legally allowed to squat there and the owner has to go through a lengthy process to evict. This stops people buying investment property and leaving it empty. If this was on Vancouver it would have massively helped their housing problem as all those apartments used for offshore assets could be used by squatters (though this would bring its own set of issues).