​Dear city of cambridge (CC: Region of waterloo)
​Cutting Through the (Seemingly Bovine) 'Fecal Matter'


Sheltering with Dignity:
​​Safe Tenting as a Human Right

On this page: 

  •  Judge Gibson's Verdict (May 21, 2026) - Victoria Encampment
    • Related information
    • Media Coverage
  • Nickel of thoughts - Pre verdict rough draft ponderings

Yet to be added: 

  • Additional media coverage and related information
  • Expansion of thoughts - 
  • What is the Notwithstanding Clause?

Nickels & Dimes: Seeking change

In any emergency, "step one" is stabilizing the situation. Effective emergency response does not add to the chaos; it reduces it. It begins by first assessing the situation, then addressing any immediate risks and the most urgent needs.

​In the context of encampments, forced evictions often intensify the crisis, displacing people, disrupting stability, and making it more difficult to maintain connections.
​Unsheltered: Emergency or Public Health Crisis - Where are we?
The idea of a safe tenting space is as an interim measure, one matching the urgency and scale of the situation at hand. It's a practical, stop-the-bleeding response to the scale of what we’re facing - and barely at that. The end goal of course remains to support people as they transition into safer and adequate housing options, but until spaces are available and accessible, a safe, stable spot to pitch a tent can mean a world of difference for some of our most vulnerable community members. 

Outreach services and support workers all rely on knowing where people are and how to reach them in order to provide their support. By forcing constant movement, we create gaps in care, lost connections, and are deepening the crises we are collectively facing. It’s counterproductive. 
Rather than forcing people to be mobile, let's create space where people can stabilize their own acccess to basic needs provisions, connect to supports and services, and retain some agency over their lives.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs reminds us that survival comes first. At its foundation are basic physiological needs - necessities such as food, water, sanitation, sleep, and shelter - the bare minimums required to sustain life. Similarly, a human rights approach recognizes, as part, the importance of ensuring access to the conditions necessary to meet these basic needs. Rights become difficult to meaningfully exercise when survival itself is in question.

Access to necessities such as washrooms, drinking water, food, and waste disposal is more easily coordinated when people are permitted to remain in a fixed location near the supports supplying them. Practical considerations around things like sanitation, pest control, and garbage collection are also more readily integrated and maintained in a static setting.

​Only when we stop "shaking our own jar" can real solutions take root.
'These deaths will be on our hands': Advocates for unsheltered say winter supplies urgently needed
​CTV News ​- November 09, 2023
Picture
View also: 
​2020:  2021:

Build zone - theoretically Intended Topic/point coverage
(some currently unexpanded trains of thought I may or may not get to)

  • humane, rights-based solution—no unnecessary evictions and safe designated spaces
  • foster stability—meeting people where they are and allowing consistent service access.

  • This approach reduces disruption to services and fosters stability.It's how we can contribute to upholding peoples dignity and support the continuity of care
  • being offered by our own budgets and wasting money via this approach 
    • lost resources and supplies - financial impact - doing it to our own system  .
      • forced displacement undermines the roi of our designated housing funds and resources
      • Muni funds sevices than repeatedly tosses out resoucrces provided to peeps by these services - forcing reprovision later or deficit of personal care supplies for the individual - Actions depleet agency and community funds instead of enhancing and maximizing the impact of these limited dollars/supplies   
  • Instead, we need to stabilize - offering a space where people can remain safely, where support can be delivered consistently. Only when we stop "shaking our own jar" can real solutions take root.
We need immediate solutions that wiil result in fewer, not more, people falling through the cracks while we figure out the bigger fix.

  • Explore other munis that have designated permitted tenting spaces 
    • ​Compile info
      • ​Explore the added challenges of navigating these style approaches in our dual tier system 
        • ​But, how could we, cuz IMHO we need to
Pillar 2 of RTR Project - Basic needs
Maslow hierachy - survival = basic needs
Human RIghts = (in part) Provision/assured supply to fulfill BASIC NEEDS

These provisions (Physiological - Survival level neccessities - bare minimums to live really) are more "easily"provided to/readily available to a (is it static or dynamic - the non moving one) population that is permitted to be in proximity to their output source (ie bathrooms, water, food - need to be on site or nearby). Many of these basics are more easily intgrated when servicing a fixed location (pest control, waste diposal)  

​​More pages from "around here":

​​because there must always be music...