Tens of thousands of people are living in Canada without safe secure shelter every night and hundreds of thousands more are precipitously close to losing what housing they have. This book looks at the expenses, options and policies impacting people in Canadian cities to create homelessness. The inadequacy of social housing support in this wealthy country, coupled with indifference to the actual costs of meeting basic needs, means the remnants of our social safety net tend to let down the people who are most in need of help. The core of this book explains how members of certain sub-sections of our population are made more vulnerable through social structures, prejudice and neglect so that: Aboriginal people, newcomers, people with radicalized identities, single-income families, people with serious health and ability challenges, isolated seniors and gender-queer youth (among others) are less likely to be able to house and feed themselves. With better understanding of the structural constraints faced by vulnerable people, compassionate social policy upholds human rights and creates the context in which the beautiful diversity of people in Canadian cities can be fully appreciated. Social supports and effective economic regulation can be the metal frame work in which the brilliant colours of different cultures can be held within Canada but the last two decades of federal policy have broken and bent those supports beyond their ability to function.