Realizing the Right to housing: Municipal Policy Responses to Encampments
Waterloo Region Snapshot
This research snapshot was compiled by Dr. Laura Pin, Regan Sunshine Brussé, and Dr. Erin Dej in July 2025.
This research project is called “Realizing the Right: Municipal Policy Responses to Encampments”. Funded through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), Realizing the Right is a multi-year community-engaged project focused on understanding of how Ontario municipalities are responding to encampments. The project is made up of:
This research snapshot shares our preliminary findings from the encampment survey from people with experience staying in encampments in Waterloo Region exclusively.
- An Ontario-wide review of all neo-vagrancy bylaws and protocols in municipalities with populations over 80,000;
- A review of legal cases concerning encampments in Ontario; and
- The Realizing the Right Encampment Survey of people with direct experience staying in encampments in Waterloo Region and Hamilton.
This research snapshot shares our preliminary findings from the encampment survey from people with experience staying in encampments in Waterloo Region exclusively.
The Realizing the Right Encampment Survey
The survey was developed by the project advisory team which includes academic researchers, people with lived experience (PWLE) of homelessness, and people with connections to local homelessness service providing organizations. Many project advisors have expertise that draws on multiple categories.
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To develop the survey questions, we drew the expertise of our advisory team, as well as foundational documents that outline what a human rights-based approach to encampments might look like in the Canadian context. These documents include:
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These foundational documents are important because they describe our domestic and international human rights obligations, and how they intersect with municipal encampment responses. Drawing on these documents, the Realizing the Right Encampment Survey was organized around five themes of a human rights approach to encampments:
Waterloo Region surveys were conducted between May 1st 2025 and June 30th 2025, at locations in Kitchener and Cambridge. Surveys took between 15 and 45 minutes to complete. The project had Wilfrid Laurier University Research Ethics Board (REB) approval, and all members of the research team completed REB ethics training, as well as training with a trained outreach worker. Overall, 41 surveys were completed. Some respondents declined to answer certain questions, so the number of individual responses to each question may vary, and this is noted in our discussion of data.
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We must rely on a human rights approach. 
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Findings
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All people responding to the survey were either currently staying in an encampment (n=30), or had stayed in an encampment in Waterloo Region in the past year (n=11). Of the people currently staying in a camp, most had been staying in camps for more than 6 months (n=19), and many for more than 12 months (n=12) (Figure 1). During their time staying in camps, 16 reported staying alone, while other individuals reported staying with romantic partners, friends, family members, and their community or chosen family. One individual described experiencing family separation due to homelessness.
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We also asked respondents several demographic questions. Most respondents reported being born in Canada (Figure 2). Some respondents identified as Indigenous, though many did not (Figure 3).
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More respondents identified as men than women, with only one respondent identifying their gender as non-binary (Figure 4). More than half of the respondents identified themselves as having a disability that affected their day-to-day life (Figure 5). Finally, most respondents were between the ages of 30 and 50, with 40-49 the most frequent age bracket (14 of 36 respondents). Overall, demographic data indicates that in comparison with census data for Waterloo Region, individuals completing the survey are more likely to be Indigenous, have a disability, and identify as male, findings that are both consistent with research on homelessness and encampments more broadly.
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Forced Removal from Encampments
Of 39 survey responses, 13 people reported being forced to leave a camping location when they would have preferred not to, typically by bylaw or police officers (Figure 6). Of the 13 individuals describing encampment evictions, only two individuals described being evicted from 100 Vic. In contrast, nine individuals described experiencing evictions at other locations in Waterloo Region, often multiple evictions, with six individuals stating they had been forced to move more than five times. An additional two respondents described encampment evictions occurring outside of Waterloo Region (Figure 7). Overall, these data suggest that individuals staying at 100 Vic are less likely than people staying at other locations in Waterloo Region to experience forced removal from encampments, which is important for the survival, health, and wellbeing of people experiencing homelessness, as forced eviction is associated with a number of harms, as discussed in the following paragraph.
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For individuals who had been forced to leave a camping location, we asked how that experience affected their personal property, their social connections, and their contact with health and social services. Of the 13 individuals who were forced to leave an encampment, 12 reported experiencing at least one harm, and eight reported experiencing multiple forms of harm. Documented harms were the loss of personal property, the loss of connection to friends and family, and a decreased ability to access health and social services (Figure 8). Several individuals provided additional details, or noted other harms, including a loss of identification which then compromised their ability to access social assistance and the loss of important personal items like family photos. The expressions respondents used to describe these experiences included being left “high and dry” and being “bulldozed”.
Snapshot continues below...
"We cannot continue to claim we are pursuing a
human rights-based approach if, at critical moments like these,
we refuse to take responsibility for meaningful change and
fail to act in accordance with the very principles
we proclaim ourselves wishing to uphold."
Barriers to Emergency Shelter
Respondents were asked about any barriers that had prevented them from accessing an emergency shelter (Figure 9). All respondents, except for one (n=40), reported at least one barrier to staying at an emergency shelter, with many respondents reporting multiple barriers. The presence of barriers to emergency shelter was the most consistent finding among survey respondents. The most cited barriers were a loss of personal belongings (n=21), no suitable shelter spaces available (n=20), being unsafe (n=19), and restrictive rules (n=19). Other reasons noted by respondents included an inability to stay as a couple at a shelter, an inability to stay with pets at a shelter, too much substance use present at shelters, an inability to use substances at shelters, and interpersonal conflicts. The contrasting views on substance use emphasize the heterogeneity of encampment residents, and the need for individualized and person-centered approaches to meet diverse needs.
Some respondents noted additional barriers to staying at emergency shelter under the “other category”. These included accessibility barriers, especially experiencing distress in crowded spaces, unavailability of women’s shelter spaces in Cambridge, concerns about sanitation at shelters, a lack of transportation options to get to shelters, a lack of knowledge about shelter locations, needing to line up for a shelter space, lacking necessary identification, and needing to leave the shelter during the day.
Barriers to Permanent Housing
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We also asked respondents questions related to their ability to access adequate, permanent housing, especially social housing. Given the high rates of market rent in Waterloo Region, particularly in relation to social assistance rates, for most individuals staying in encampments, accessing market rent housing is impossible. According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) in Oct 2024, the median market rent for a 1-bedroom apartment was $1,472, and this may underestimate the rental costs of a new tenancy given that the median includes longstanding tenants paying below-market rent. In contrast, the maximum assistance available for a single person in receipt of Ontario Works (OW) in Oct 2024 was $733, and this amount was $1,368 for a single adult in receipt of the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP). The disconnect between income support rates and market housing costs leaves social housing, that is housing offered at Rent-Geared-to-Income (RGI) rates, as the main permanent housing option for people experiencing homelessness.
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Adequacy, as a core principle of the right to housing, |
We asked if survey respondents were on the waitlist for social housing in Waterloo Region. Just over half of the individuals (n=20) stated ‘yes’, with a further 15 individuals stating ‘no’, and 5 individuals indicating that they were ‘unsure’ (Figure 10). Twelve respondents indicated that they had not been able to satisfactorily connect with housing services, including several individuals who reported being on the housing waitlist.
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Some of the frustrations expressed in terms of accessing housing included no housing available, despite being on the housing waitlist for years, not being able to access housing despite being given priority on the waitlist, not feeling that housing workers were effective, and difficulty connecting with housing workers or services. In the follow-up qualitative responses, respondents described additional barriers to housing. Seven respondents noted they had been on the waitlist for more than 12 months. Reflecting the complexity of the waitlist process and status, five individuals left comments expressing uncertainty as to whether they were in fact on the housing list, including some individuals who had answered the previous question affirmatively. Five comments referenced administrative barriers to social housing, which ranged from arrears from previous time in social housing, to permanent residency status, to bans from the entire social housing system.
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We also asked if individuals had been offered a permanent housing option, for example, a supportive living space, a room in a house, or an apartment. Of the 35 individuals who answered this question, most individuals (n=30, 86%) stated that they were not offered a permanent housing option, though one individual described finding market housing on their own. Of the five individuals who indicated that they had at some point been offered a permanent housing option, one was in the process of moving into housing, two described living for a time in housing arrangements they felt “forced” into, and that they described as unsafe or unsuitable. The other three respondents described the housing offers as “falling through” prior to occupancy.
Access to Services to Meet Day-to-Day Needs
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To find out about service access, we asked respondents with experience living in encampments which types of service providers had been important in meeting their day-to-day needs. This was an open-ended question, and we coded responses into three emergent categories: non-profits (formal service providing organizations), grassroots initiatives (mutual aid, volunteers), and outreach workers (municipal and other types). Non-profits and grassroots were the most common ways individuals accessed services to meet their day-to-day needs, with a few individuals mentioning outreach workers (n=3) (Figure 11).
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In comments from respondents, the most common organizations identified as helpful to meeting their day-to-day needs were Tiny Home Take Out, 519 Community Collective, 150 Main Drop-In, St. John’s Kitchen, Ray of Hope, the Sanguen Health Van, and the Working Centre’s Specialized Outreach Services (SOS). Importantly, many of the frequently mentioned organizations provide delivery and/or mobile services (ex. Sanguen Health Van, 519 Community Collective) or are located very close to where people accessing the service are camping (St. John’s Kitchen). Several individuals noted the importance of volunteer efforts in providing food and water to people staying in camps. One respondent described a non-profit as helping with tents, sleeping bags, and cell phones for their housing search. The types of organizations mentioned by individuals were consistent across encampments, , but individuals at the 100 Victoria Street encampment were more likely to describe volunteers and organizations providing regular access to food. As one person put it, “you’re not going to starve if you stay here.”
One question on our survey asked if individuals knew of any attempts to offer Indigenous-specific services to people staying in encampments, to offer access to traditional medicine, and/or to discuss treaty rights when accessing encampments. We asked these questions because international and domestic guidance on the Right to Housing emphasizes the importance of respecting Indigenous rights as part of meeting Right to Housing obligations.
Overall, 38 individuals responded to our question, of which 31 individuals responded “No”. A further two individuals were unsure. Of the remaining five individuals, four described accessing Indigenous specific services, and one described accessing traditional medicine, mostly informally through community, though two Indigenous outreach organizations, Seven Generations and Native Housing, were also mentioned.
Key Takeaways
The Realizing the Right Encampment Survey provides a snapshot of the experiences of people staying in encampments int he Region.
- Most people have stayed in encampments for more than six months, with some individuals indicating they have lived in encampments for several years;
- People staying in encampments experience forced displacement and people staying at encampments that have legal or policy protections, such as the 100 Victoria Street encampment, are much less likely to be displaced;
- Forced displacement of encampment residents is strongly associated with harms that make it more difficult for encampment residents to access social networks, services, and supports needed for daily survival;
- People staying in encampments in Waterloo Region experience multiple, complex, and overlapping barriers to emergency shelter access, relating both to the availability and accessibility of emergency shelter spaces;
- There are significant barriers to accessing permanent housing for people staying in encampments, including insufficient income to access private market housing, long waitlists for social housing, difficulty connecting with housing workers, and complex administrative rules governing social housing processes;
- People staying in encampments rely primarily on non-profit service providers and grassroots volunteer and mutual aid efforts to meet their day-to-day needs;
- Few people staying in encampments reported accessing Indigenous-specific services or support.
Limitations
There are several limitations to our survey data. First, we used convenience sampling, and as such, our survey respondents may not be fully representative of people who have stayed in encampments in Waterloo Region. Second, we were only able to speak to individuals who were interested in completing a survey and who were comfortable participating in English. Because participation in our survey required a certain level of sustained focus, the voices of those in acute crisis may be underrepresented in this data. These limitations speak to the importance of ongoing efforts to document and include the perspective of people with experience staying in encampments in municipal policy responses.