As access to affordable housing becomes more difficult, the number of homeless encampments across Canada has increased. While encampments to do not satisfy the right to housing, the rights of encampment residents must be protected. The Shift has developed several resources to help ensure the rights of encampment residents are upheld. Download them and use them in your community!
The National Working Group on Homeless Encampments (NWG-HE) – convened by The Shift since January 2023 – presents a Municipal Engagement Guidance. This Guidance is intended to support municipalities in engaging homeless encampments in a constructive and peaceful manner. The Guidance is not a road map to solving homelessness. It is an effort to establish national standards, based in human rights, for municipal government engagement with encampments across the country of Canada. It is intended to help ensure the best outcomes for those living in encampments and their communities in the short term, while establishing a foundation for longer-term solutions.
The National Working Group on Homeless Encampments (NWG-HE) – convened by The Shift since January 2023 – presents a Municipal Engagement Guidance. This Guidance is intended to support municipalities in engaging homeless encampments in a constructive and peaceful manner. The Guidance is not a road map to solving homelessness. It is an effort to establish national standards, based in human rights, for municipal government engagement with encampments across the country of Canada. It is intended to help ensure the best outcomes for those living in encampments and their communities in the short term, while establishing a foundation for longer-term solutions.
In April 2020, former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing Leilani Farha and Dr. Kaitlin Schwan released A National Protocol on Homeless Encampments: A Human Rights Approach. The Protocol, based in international and domestic human rights law, outlines eight Principles to guide governments in their responses to homeless encampments.
This Handout, Homeless Encampments & Your Human Rights, is for people living in encampments in Canada. It outlines residents’ human rights and how governments are obliged to respect them. Download and freely distribute!
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