THe SHift's Resources

A resource packet for Canadian municipalities.

This guide outlines a human rights-based approach to addressing homeless encampments in Canada, highlighting how municipalities can move beyond ineffective traditional tactics toward solutions that preserve dignity and safety for vulnerable populations, while recognizing the need for greater inter-jurisdictional cooperation and resource support from higher levels of government.

This document presents a National Encampment Response Road Map developed by The Shift and BGM Strategy Group, outlining essential steps for implementing rights-based approaches to addressing homeless encampments across Canadian municipalities, in alignment with federal funding commitments and human rights principles.

In an urgent letter sent to Mayor Cherelle Parker on December 9th, 2024, Philadelphia’s Chinatown community leaders and advocates have raised profound concerns about the proposed 76 Place arena development. The letter details the community’s sustained opposition to the project, which threatens to fundamentally alter the neighborhood’s social, cultural, and economic landscape.

Community members argue that the current arena planning process has systematically excluded their voices, leaving them without meaningful opportunity to participate in decisions that will directly impact their neighborhood. The proposed arena, set to be constructed in the Fashion District adjacent to Chinatown, poses significant risks to the community’s cultural heritage, housing stability, and long-term well-being.

The letter to the Mayor articulates the community’s primary concerns, including potential displacement, cultural disruption, and the erosion of a historic neighborhood that has been a vital center of Philadelphia’s Asian American community for generations.

This easy-to-understand visual resource explains where the right to housing comes from, why it is a transformational approach to the housing crisis and many other pressing global problems, and gives the 10 essential steps for implementing the right to housing.

For more information on the ten steps included in this visual framework, check out Guidelines on the Implementation of the Right to Housing, written by Leilani Farha in her capacity as UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing in 2019.

Canada’s very first human rights-based review panel was on the issue of “the financialization of purpose-built rental housing.” The council received over 190 written submissions and held oral hearings from October 23 to December 5, 2023. Submissions were received from people affected by financialization, civil society organizations, housing and human rights experts, and representatives from the purpose-built rental housing sector.