Human Rights & Housing Fights:

“I Think It’s Bullshit”
Encampment Evictions and the Criminalization of Homelessness
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. Historically, responses to unsheltered homelessness in Canada have relied on neo-vagrancy bylaws and other regulatory approaches that criminalize survival in public space. At the same time, recent years have seen growing recognition of the Right to Housing (RtH) in Canada, including its recognition through federal legislation.

This presentation draws on a community-engaged research project examining municipal encampment responses across Ontario. The project includes a review of neo-vagrancy bylaws and encampment protocols in 44 Ontario municipalities, as well as surveys with 105 people with lived experience residing in encampments.

Focusing on experiences of encampment evictions, this presentation examines the harms caused by forced displacement. We argue that encampment evictions produce harms across all five pillars of a human rights-based approach to homelessness: decentring policing and law enforcement, meeting basic needs, ensuring accessible services, supporting meaningful participation, and upholding Indigenous rights. In doing so, we position forced displacement as a profound violation of the right to housing and related human rights.
  • Forced displacement remains a common municipal response to encampments.
  • Most encampment evictions do not result in housing.
  • Displacement often disrupts healthcare, social services, and community supports.
  • Municipal policies frequently prioritize enforcement over basic needs.
  • Meaningful participation and Indigenous rights remain largely absent from many encampment responses.
  • Addressing homelessness requires both immediate stabilization measures and long-term housing solutions.
"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."
Presented on May 21, 2026
​by Laura Pin and Sidney Macdonald. 

Realizing the Right:
​Municipal Policy Responses to Encampments

​This project is titled Realizing the Right: Municipal Policy Responses to Encampments. This project focuses on applying a human rights lens to municipal encampment responses, using a community-engaged approach.

Rethinking Municipal Policy Responses to Encampments:
​Building a Human Rights Approach in Ontario

The goal of this report is to provide guidance on what a human rights-based approach to homeless encampments might look like at the municipal level, as well as assess to what extent existing municipal policy responses reflect a rights-based approach. To do so we explored neo-vagrancy bylaws and encampment protocols in all Ontario municipalities over 70,000 residents, in 2023 and 2024. There are some important limitations to assessing municipal encampment approaches through written policy documents. Bylaws and protocols do not tell us about the enforcement and implementation of policies, or the lived impacts of policies on people experiencing homelessness. However, bylaws and protocols are an important starting place as they are key documents that guide local responses to encampments and are important places where a human rights approach should be reflected
To assess municipal bylaws and protocols, we used existing human rights documents on homelessness to develop a human rights policy framework that is built on five pillars: decentring policing and law enforcement, addressing conditions in encampments and meeting basic needs; equitable and accessible service provisioning; meaningful participation of people living in encampments; and recognition of Indigenous rights.
"I can't get ahead because I'm constantly starting over."
"​I had to reapply for ID, bank cards..."
"I lost access to showers, toilets, food, services..."