Dan Laxer, in the July 29 edition of The Suburban, poses two crucial questions about homelessness: whether it can be prevented and whether we can get rid of it altogether.

The core problem, as I see it, is the ever increasing cost of renting a place to live, when there are many people who simply cannot afford a home, in addition to their food insecurity.

Having a home or sufficient nutrition are, of course, not among our basic constitutional rights in Canada. Homelessness and starvation are not treated as injustices, in any way, in Canadian law, so far as I know.

What we need to do is to, in my opinion, replace the welfare system with a guaranteed, livable annual income for all needy people (perhaps a voucher system) so that they can afford food and housing. I am far from being the first person to suggest this.

Shloime Perel, Côte Saint-Luc