Barriers to Belonging: Examining Service Access
Municipal responses to encampments can be a matter of life and death for people experiencing homelessness, many of whom rely on encampments for shelter, safety, community, and mutual aid. While staying in encampments, people need equitable and accessible social services. These supports are critical to addressing peoples’ needs while experiencing homelessness, and supporting people in their journey towards permanent housing. Yet, despite this clear need, people trying to survive outdoors continue to experience barriers to necessary social services, as we have documented through our research in the Realizing the Right.
Our research combines a policy scan of municipal neo-vagrancy bylaws and encampment protocols with a survey of 105 people who have lived in an encampment within the previous year.
This Human Rights and Housing Fights presentation brings together both pieces of our research, with presenters looking at the municipal policy report findings and the lived experience survey findings through deeper examination of human rights Pillar 3: Equitable and Accessible Social Services. Through the policy analysis, we examine how municipalities and service systems approach access to social services for people staying in encampments. Through the survey, we share how people living in encampments actually experience those systems. Combining policy and survey data helps us understand not just whether supports exist on paper, but also whether these systems are truly accessible, equitable, and responsive to people during their moments of crisis.
Throughout this presentation, the research team discusses how people experience service access barriers in day-to-day life. Using the human rights framing from Pillar 3, we also explore whether people can access supports in ways that respect their autonomy, agency and dignity.
Throughout this presentation, the research team discusses how people experience service access barriers in day-to-day life. Using the human rights framing from Pillar 3, we also explore whether people can access supports in ways that respect their autonomy, agency and dignity.
Presentation to the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) on August 4, 2026 by
Mauleek Bhatt, Regan Brusse, Jammy Lo and Laura Pin
Mauleek Bhatt, Regan Brusse, Jammy Lo and Laura Pin
We want to begin by acknowledging that the researchers involved in this project are located in Hamilton, on the traditional territories of the Mississaugas, Haudenosaunee, Erie, Attawandaron, and Wendat Peoples, and in Waterloo Region, on the traditional territories of the Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabe, and Chonnonton Peoples.
We recognize that housing precarity and homelessness cannot be separated from the ongoing impacts of settler colonialism and the ways in which land, housing, and belonging continue to be structured in this society. Throughout this work, we try to remain attentive to the fact that questions of housing justice are also questions of Indigenous rights, sovereignty, and self-determination. While we acknowledge that we do this imperfectly, it is an important consideration that continues to shape how we approach this research and the conversations that emerge from it.
We recognize that housing precarity and homelessness cannot be separated from the ongoing impacts of settler colonialism and the ways in which land, housing, and belonging continue to be structured in this society. Throughout this work, we try to remain attentive to the fact that questions of housing justice are also questions of Indigenous rights, sovereignty, and self-determination. While we acknowledge that we do this imperfectly, it is an important consideration that continues to shape how we approach this research and the conversations that emerge from it.
Realizing the Right:
Municipal Policy Responses to Encampments
This research is part of a project called Realizing the Right: Municipal Policy Responses to Encampments (RtR). RtR is a community-engaged project based at Wilfrid Laurier University focused on understanding how municipalities in Ontario are responding to encampments. RtR has been undertaken in partnership with the Social Development Centre of Waterloo Region and the Hamilton Social Medicine Response Team and is funded through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). RtR is governed by a project steering committee that includes people with and without lived experience of homelessness.
Coming soon:
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'No Place Else to Go: Surveying the Human Rights Experiences of Encampment Residents in Ontario' is a seven-part report series by 'Realizing the Right'. Alongside an overview of the research process and findings, the series includes individual reports dedicated to each of the human rights pillars explored through the survey.
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Rather than releasing our survey findings as a single publication, as we did with our policy report, we are sharing this research incrementally. While each report can be read independently, together they provide a comprehensive account of the project's methodology, evidence, and findings concerning human rights and encampments in Ontario.
We hope this approach allows for each theme to be examined in greater depth while fostering broader community dialogue.
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Building the Evidence: Survey Design, Data Collection, and Research Highlights is the first in our series of reports. It outlines how we designed the survey and collected the data, and offers a brief overview of our research findings, which are then discussed in more detail in subsequent reports.
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"Forced displacement isn't just about losing a place to stay in the immediate term. The harms of it are wide-reaching and they really affect every aspect of a person experiencing homelessness and their lives." |
The Human RIghts PillarsOur work is rooted in five pillars of a human rights approach to encampments. These pillars are:
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