The result is not that Canada’s social programs do not work. They do. The result is that one policy failure is so large that it cancels everything else. Ontario chose restrictive zoning, slow permitting, and supply constraints that inflate housing costs and transfer wealth from renters and the young to incumbent homeowners and the old. This is not a law of nature. Alabama demonstrates what happens when a jurisdiction allows housing supply to respond to demand: shelter becomes affordable, and a thinner safety net still delivers comparable or better outcomes for the poor.