There isn't sufficient green space and parks downtown and many of those camping there have nowhere else to go. Creating a safer, more private and cost-effective alternative such as sleeping pods (see multiple videos) in government buildings (cbc) should provide time while longer-term solutions are being worked on.

Capsule hotels have long been a fixture in and near airports, with many tourists preferring these ventilated, sound-proof and modern enclosures to more expensive hotel rooms. Such contraptions are also preferred by most homeless people, as many used the carpenter-built ones in parks and would allow increasing density in existing shelters, which are currently at capacity, with homeless people being turned away. Sleeping pods would thus allow to scale up capacity without building new shelters and may help to provide a safer alternative to those camping in parks.

I hold Vienna (where a mix of government built and run housing as well as partnerships with the private sector exist) and Singapore (where the newly independent city state engaged back in the 1960s, prompted by "race riots", on a truly remarkable path of intense construction to house its entire population) as viable models for longer term affordable housing solutions.

The Housing Affordability Task Force report (PDF) has great ideas.

There is also an opportunity for special partnerships with other levels of government, as it happened in Vancouver with the historic partnership between Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw and Canada (also: cmhc, pm, tgm, gn).

When attending University of Toronto I lived in campus coop (CCRI). (chores + house yt). While canvassing, I noticed that co-op housing projects are better maintained than those governed directly by Toronto Housing / TCHC, which is why I believe that new housing projects should be mostly co-op.