[calculoso]

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/201...sing-project-1

TORONTO — The government's response to the Attawapiskat housing crisis may well have underscored Stephen Harper's reputation for his hard line rather than his heart, with his focus on the aboriginal reserve's financial problems, not its social ones.

But in other parts of the country, the prime minister's government is also quietly bankrolling one of the largest social pilot projects ever seen in Canada, paying generously for cutting-edge research that is changing the lives of hundreds of homeless people.

The project may scream out for a new, national social program -- the kind that has been anathema to Harper in the past.

But it is producing results that suggest federal involvement in funding homes for the homeless can be smart and save money.

....

The approach, known as "housing first", rejects the traditional method of trying to fix homeless people's underlying problems before guiding them towards affordable housing. Instead, the home comes first -- heavily subsidized and with no strings attached. Then, a support team swoops in and bombards the homeless people with services of all kinds, if they want them.

...

That's an astounding success rate for a problem that has been the bane of many a government policy.

...