On the way to a local farmers’ market last weekend, I had to make a quick stop for some cash at an east-end bank branch.

I should have been tipped off as soon as I saw a man walk up to the front door and then make a quick retreat to his vehicle. Inside the bank’s vestibule was a shopping cart packed so high with personal belongings, you could almost hear it groan.

And on the floor, under one of the ATMs, wrapped up in a sleeping bag was the person to whom the shopping cart belonged. So, now that homelessness and poverty have become so much a part of our city’s landscape, I quietly slipped in and out so as not to disturb them.

But I thought, how has it come to this?

I’ve been thinking the same thing ever since the plan was announced at city hall earlier this month for 60 micro-shelters

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