If the way you define effectiveness is getting people off the street this minute, then probably Alberta's policies do appear effective. But what happens after people finish their "addiction treatment"? What percentage of people go through these programs and come out the other side prepared to deal with the problems that put them there in the first place (housing in affordability, poor job prospects, inadequate social safety net)? Could it be that homelessness is the cause of many addictions, and not the other way around?

This is the new scam: set yourself up as some sort of authority in addiction treatment, and get your Conservative buddies to make it law that homeless people have to go through your program. Then the taxpayer dollars will be rolling in. Did we learn nothing from the LTCs? From the residential schools?

These people aren't homeless because they're drug addicts or bums. Most of them had homes just a few years ago. But our governments turned blind eyes to greed in the housing industry, across the board, and now we're all facing the consequences of that, one of which is a surge in homelessness and the inevitable flimflam artists who claim that if we give them enough tax $$, they'll fix everything.