Canada’s housing advocate has a roadmap to end homelessness. What is it?

The homeless encampment in Grand Parade in front of City Hall in Halifax is seen after eviction notices were served on Wednesday, February 7, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese

Marie-Josée Houle on Tuesday called for an end to forced evictions of encampments and urged “alternatives that are designed following meaningful engagement with encampment residents.”

The OFHA report, released on Tuesday, calls on the federal government to create a National Encampments Response Plan that recognizes Canada’s human rights obligations and commits resources to ending chronic homelessness.

Speaking to Global News, Houle said her review of encampments across Canada revealed that the problem was not just limited to the big cities.

“I found that this is a national crisis, that there’s no place that’s immune. It’s not just a big urban centre issue. It is one that is found everywhere across the country, including the most remote places and in the far north.”

She told Global News, “We need to see the end to forced evictions because they never work. This top-down approach has to stop.”

She said in the long run, shelters cannot be the only solution and says Canada needs more non-market housing, which refers to housing provided for low and moderate-income groups not traditionally served by the private market.

“It’s really important to consider the role of non-market housing. Only four per cent of the rentals in Canada are non-market and they are valuable,” Houle said.

On Thursday, Houle met with Housing Minister Sean Fraser and Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu to brief them about the report. She recommended that the federal government establish a National Encampments Response Plan by Aug. 31 this year.

She said there exists now a “patchwork” of responses across the country instead of a coordinated response. She said only the federal government could bring different stakeholders to the table.

“We need all governments to be at the table, and we need the federal government to be convening that table. We need to seek collaboration and a coordinated and consistent response to support the municipalities,” she said, “The plan has to respect human rights as well as Indigenous rights. It needs to prioritize permanent housing solutions and make them available as quickly as possible.”

Fraser told reporters in Ottawa Tuesday that homelessness and affordable housing are intertwined.

“We can’t assume that we can address the encampments challenges without also addressing the underlying affordable housing challenges. It’s not enough to inject money into local responses unless there’s a long-term plan to find sustainable housing options for the people who are living in encampments today,” he said.

“We are working now to develop an appropriate response to help cities deal with encampments and as importantly, to find sustainable and durable housing solutions for the people who are living in them today.”

The report recommends tying the granting of any federal housing dollars to efforts to end homelessness.

“Infrastructure Canada and the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation must include conditions in funding agreements with provinces, territories, and municipalities that ensure that all use of federal housing-related funds respect and fulfill Canada’s international and domestic human rights obligations,” the report said.

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Houle told Global News that Indigenous groups need to have a seat at the table, and that the opioid crisis needs to be treated like a healthcare issue, rather than a criminal issue.

“People do need a safe supply of drugs in order to help them manage wherever they are in their recovery or lack thereof,” she said, adding that people who make it out of recovery should be supported so that they don’t fall back into homelessness.

At the provincial and territorial level, the OFHA recommended key legislative changes, such as legislation recognizing the human right to adequate housing as defined in international law.

It also called on provinces and territories to upgrade their human rights codes “to ensure explicit prohibition of discrimination based on social condition such as income levels, being unemployed or experiencing homelessness.”

The report called on the provinces to strengthen the protection of tenant rights, including rent control and vacancy control, as well as protection against above-guideline rent increases, forced evictions for rent arrears and evictions into homelessness.

It also suggested an overhaul of relevant bylaws, policies, programs and plans at the municipal level to ensure engagement with people who have lived experience of living in encampments.

In particular, the report said municipalities should minimize the role of police and bylaw officers in responses to encampments.

“This includes providing direction to law enforcement and relevant authorities to end practices which make drug use grounds for displacement, seizure of property, mandatory referrals to health and social services and treatment, and other measures that impose coercive limitations on the rights of encampment residents who use drugs,” the report read.

Houle said cities must ensure clean drinking water, sanitation, cooking facilities and waste collection on-site or in reasonable proximity to encampments. For encampment residents suffering from substance addiction, she said cities must ensure access to harm reduction services and regulated safe supply.

It goes on to urge policymakers to ensure that people who have lived experience with addictions and substance use have a central role in designing solutions. Houle told Global News this includes not only policy formation, but also engaging with encampment communities in response to disagreements such as where the encampments should move.

— with files from Global News’ Aaron D’Andrea