There is, in all of Canada, a severe shortage of decent quality housing that is affordable to those with low incomes, and a great deal of inadequate, and often appalling, housing. This has been the case for many decades. The poor condition of their housing adds to the weight of the complex poverty that poor people endure-their health is likely to worsen, their children's education may be adversely affected, their neighbourhoods may be prone to violence. However, the federal government has almost always been ideologically opposed to public investment in low-income housing, moreso now than earlier federal governments. The irony is that the social costs of poor housing and its attendant complex poverty with which it is typically associated are greater than the costs of investing in subsidized, social housing and associated anti-poverty measures. It is long past time that we set in motion the means by which this problem can finally be solved. Poor Housing examines some of the consequences of the dogged persistence of poor housing for low-income people using Winnipeg as a case study, and it looks at some innovative community-based strategies that have been and are being tried in an attempt to solve at least some aspects of the problem.