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Overview of Encampments Across Canada: A Right to Housing Approach
Author(s): Alexandra Flynn, Joe Hermer, Caroline Leblanc, Sue-Ann MacDonald, Kaitlin Schwan, Estair van Wagner
Organization: Office of the Federal Housing Advocate
Publication Date: 2022
Homeless encampments constitute one of the most serious right-to-housing issues in Canada today. Mobilizing case studies, media scans, and literature and policy reviews, this report illuminates the inherent tensions of the human rights dimensions of encampments across Canada. Chapter 1 provides a background on the regulation of encampments before and after the pandemic. Chapter 2 focuses on the specific role of municipal bylaws in encampments. Su...
Case Study: Prince George
Author(s): Joe Hermer
Organization: Office of the Federal Housing Advocate
Publication Date: 2022
In May 2021, the City of Prince George in northern British Columbia adopted a punitive stance against the presence of mostly street involved and unsheltered Indigenous people. This involved plans to enact a “safe streets” bylaw and a council resolution to apply for an injunction to close two homeless encampments. What followed was a fierce legal battle over the human rights of mostly Indigenous homeless people to use public space as a site of she...
Justice and Injustice: Homelessness, Crime, Victimization, and the Criminal Justice System
Author(s): Sylvia Novac, Joe Hermer, Emily Paradis, Amber Kellen
Organization: Centre for Urban and Community Studies; John Howard Society of Toronto
Publication Date: 2006
The relationship between homelessness and the criminal justice in Canada has not been extensively examined. Using the situation in Toronto as a case study, this report begins to fill this knowledge gap by exploring major questions about homelessness and incarceration, criminal behaviour by and against people who are homeless, and innovative programs and policies that can prevent or ameliorate homelessness and incarceration.
A Revolving Door? Homeless People and the Justice System in Toronto
Author(s): Sylvia Novac, Joe Hermer, Emily Paradis, Amber Kellen
Publication Date: 2007
This research bulletin draws on research prepared for the Housing and Homelessness Branch that received funding from the National Research Program of the National Homelessness Initiative. Researchers from the Centre for Urban and Community Studies and the John Howard Society conducted a literature review, an analysis of administrative data; a review of client files; a survey of 57 homeless individuals; in-depth interviews with 22 homeless individ...
7.2 More Sinned Against than Sinning? Homeless People as Victims of Crime Harassment
Author(s): Sylvia Novac, Joe Hermer, Emily Paradis, Amber Kellen
Publisher: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness
Publication Date: 2009
Homeless people are more often victims of crime than housed people. This chapter draws on a survey that explored the experiences and views of homeless individuals who have been involved with the criminal justice system or been victimized. The survey found that homeless individuals appreciate the need for law and order, but are critical of perceived unfair policing practices, especially differential treatment of racialized persons. Also, although...
7.1 A Revolving Door? Homeless People the Justice System in Toronto
Author(s): Sylvia Novac, Joe Hermer, Emily Paradis, Amber Kellen
Publisher: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness
Publication Date: 2009
How many of Toronto’s 30,000 homeless people end up in correctional facilities for reasons relating to their lack of housing? And how many of the 50,000 released each year from provincial correctional facilities in the Toronto area end up on the streets? Drawing on administrative data and interviews with homeless individuals, service providers, and key informants, the authors reveal that many homeless people are caught in a cycle of shelters, jai...