To better respond to homeless encampments, municipalities need sustained federal funds: Report

Federal housing advocate Marie-Josée Houle is calling for the federal government to expand and sustain funding for municipalities to help them respond to encampments.

The recommendation is part of a report released last week by Houle. The report comes after Houle toured five cities in southern Ontario in September: Hamilton, Cambridge, Kitchener, London and Toronto.

“We've written a few letters of concern where the responses were directly violating human rights and an opportunity to educate city councils that were taking some of these terrible - I'm going to not mince words - terrible steps that were leading to more of the criminalization of poverty and homelessness rather than addressing the root causes,” Houle told CBC Kitchener-Waterloo’s Craig Norris, host of The Morning Edition, on Thursday.

“We thought it would be really important to go see for ourselves and meet people who are experiencing homelessness, what their experiences are, what some of the solutions they want to see, and then the agencies that are supporting them, as well as a few elected officials. So that's exactly what we did.”

In the report, Houle says there were consistent themes that emerged from all five cities including:

• Breakdowns in multiple systems and bureaucratic barriers were driving people to homelessness. This includes a “severe shortage of affordable and accessible units.”

• Emergency shelters are not long-term housing solutions.

• Extreme weather increases the risks people who are homeless face.

• Women and gender-diverse people face heightened risks when in shelters, shelter hotels and encampments.

• Community organizations are overstretched and "increasingly face hostility from the public and municipal leaders.”

• Federal and provincial funding is not adequate.

"My report really calls on the federal government, well, all levels of government actually, to expand and sustain federal investments in the human rights-based responses to encampments," Houle said.

"That means meaningful engagement with the people living there and not just making decisions and decisions quickly because those don't work."

9 recommendations

The report offers nine recommendations for actions the federal government can take:

1. Expand and sustain federal investments in human rights-based responses to encampments.

2. End forced encampment evictions and the criminalization of homelessness.

3. Stop using coercive methods that force people to choose between the harms of an eviction and inadequate housing.

4. Integrate housing and health care.

5. Put in place culturally specific and trauma-informed programs and supports for Indigenous people.

6. Address gender-based and systemic violence.

7. Put in place strategies and resources to respond to extreme weather year-round.

8. Protect and empower community organizations.

9. Ensure funding is provided to protect the right to adequate housing for refugee claimants.

Houle visited Kitchener and Cambridge as part of her visit. She went to Cambridge on Sept. 22 and Kitchener on Sept. 23.

She notes in her report that homelessness services are concentrated in Kitchener “for historic and socio-economic reasons. Nonetheless, homelessness is increasing throughout the region.”

The Region of Waterloo largely receives funding to address homelessness, Houle wrote, but the cities determine housing development and their own response to encampments.

Concerns in Cambridge, advocate says

In Cambridge, Houle wrote that encampments are “often small and scattered” and people living in them “face constant threats of displacement.”

The report says people who spoke to Houle during the visit described Cambridge as a “service desert” compared to Kitchener.

“The advocate heard that people living in encampments and local service providers feel they are not being listened to when they express their needs or share solutions,” the report says.

“Participants reported that some city officials have engaged in open hostility towards community service providers and advocates. Outreach workers described being harassed during evictions, while encampment residents reported acts of vigilante surveillance and even arson targeting encampment sites.”

CBC K-W reached out to the City of Cambridge about the report. The city has not yet provided a response.

Region aims to clear Kitchener encampment

In Kitchener, Houle visited the encampment at 100 Victoria St., near the corner of Victoria and Weber streets. The encampment is on regionally-owned land and the region has said it needs to clear the site as part of planned work for a new transit hub.

Clearing the site has involved passing a new bylaw and going to court for guidance.

Houle says the bylaw and court case has led people living at the encampment to feel “increased insecurity due to the risk of being evicted.”

People reported to Houle that they didn’t feel like their basic needs were being met and that they were not consulted about what services they needed.

Some people who are homeless raised concerns about violence and trafficking in motels and encampments.

Houle said when concerns by people who are homeless were raised with the region, regional staff said “they are aware of the issue and taking steps to increase safety.”

CBC K-W reached out to the Region of Waterloo, but it has not yet provided comment on what Houle wrote in her report.