At a time when the number of makeshift camps is exploding across the country in the midst of a housing crisis, federal housing advocate Marie-Josée Houle is urging Ottawa to develop a national plan to tackle this issue while avoiding resort to the dismantling of these makeshift shelters by the police, a practice which only makes the already fragile living conditions of people experiencing homelessness more precarious.
In a detailed report made public this Tuesday, that The duty was able to consult under embargo, Mme Houle, whose office is attached to the Canadian Human Rights Commission, does not hesitate to describe as a “national crisis” the increase in recent years in the number of makeshift camps and their dismantling by security forces. order across the country. However, despite the scale of this problem, the State currently offers very few resources to support homeless people who remain in camps, from which they are regularly evicted by the police, notes the report.
“Residents of settlements are at serious risk of harm due to the failure of governments to provide basic needs and services necessary to protect their physical and mental health — including access to water, food, from sanitation services, heating and air conditioning, accessibility supports, health care and harm reduction services,” writes Marie-Josée Houle. In this context, “we absolutely need leadership from the federal government” in order to improve the living conditions of residents in the camps, insists Mme Houle, who thus urges Ottawa to draft and implement a national intervention plan on this issue by August 31.
“Governments must show that they are going to take the crisis seriously because it is a problem that needs to be addressed urgently,” insists Mme Swell.
This plan should thus allow public authorities to find alternative solutions to “forced evictions” from camps, which would be determined in concert with the people who live in these places as well as with representatives of indigenous communities, over-represented among the homeless. in the country. “When we say that the approach should respect human rights, that implies engaging directly with the people affected” by this situation, summarizes the author of this report.
Surveillance and harassment
In the short term, Mme Houle believes that public authorities should ensure that living conditions in the camps are improved, in particular by providing them with temporary weather-resistant shelters, heat sources, as well as access to a fire extinguisher and training. in fire safety. “As long as the treatment of people in the camps is less than that, it is absolutely not acceptable,” she emphasizes.
For their part, reception centers should be open at all times, while homeless shelters should stop imposing “barriers” that limit their access to many people experiencing homelessness, particularly those with disabilities. consumption problems or who have a pet, continues the federal housing defender.
The training and work of police officers working with the homeless should be revised so that police officers stop carrying out “confiscation of property, surveillance and harassment”, practices “that violate human rights residents of the encampments” and which represent “a continuation of the violence of the colonial state” that many indigenous people continue to experience, the report indicates. The police must therefore stop “dehumanizing” the homeless, insists Mme Swell, enforcing laws that expose encampment residents “to increased risks of harm and violence.”
Marie-Josée Houle also points out that the camps, although they must be tolerated, do not represent a safe and sustainable place for their residents, who should have rapid access to affordable housing that meets their specific needs. To do this, significant public investments will be required, but these are nothing comparable to the human cost of the lack of support from which people on the streets currently suffer, notes the federal housing defender.
“How much does it cost to lose a generation of people who suffer from addiction or suffer trauma from intense poverty and homelessness? », asks Mme Houle, who recalls the importance of “putting pressure on decision-makers” so that things finally change.