Meaningful Engagement with Encampment Residents
Guide to Meaningful Engagement and Integrating a Human Rights-Based Approach into Encampment Responses
In February 2024, the Federal Housing Advocate released her report, Upholding Dignity and Human Rights, presenting her findings and recommendations following a systemic review of homeless encampments across Canada. The report highlighted that governments have human rights obligations to people living in encampments and called for a human rights-based approach.
This guide has been developed to provide additional guidance to governments, particularly municipal governments who are most often on the frontlines when it comes to encampment responses, on how they put in place a human rights-based approach. It focuses on the critical importance of ensuring meaningful engagement of people living in encampments to identify and put in place durable solutions to homelessness and encampments.
The guide also responds to concerns expressed by people living in encampments and human rights advocates, who have noted that the language of human rights and consultation has been co-opted in some instances and even used to justify processes that cause harm. It is not enough to claim to adopt and to be applying a human rights-based approach; it is essential to take actions that lead to a real improvement in the lives of people living in encampments. This must not be limited to efforts to ensure access to adequate housing but must also include immediate measures to respect human dignity and protect lives until such time as adequate long-term housing solutions are available to meet the needs.
The guide is composed of eight fact sheets and an introduction. Click here to download the full resource in a single file or download the pieces individually through the drop-down menu below.
Click to display a list with links to each section of the resource
1. Actions to Understand and Respect the Realities of People Living in Encampments
2. Actions to recognize and respect the human rights of people living in encampments
3. Actions to recognize and respect the rights of First Nations, Inuit and Métis people
4. Actions to build and maintain the trust of encampment residents
5. Actions to provide services adapted to the needs and realities of people living in encampments
6. Actions to facilitate participation in decision-making
7. Actions that support the self-determination and autonomy of people in encampments
8. Actions that continue to work towards long-term adequate housing solutions
Eight Principles to Guide Meaningful Engagement with People Living in Encampments and Integrate a Human Rights-Based Approach into Encampment Responses
Click here to view the full introduction to the fact sheets that includes these principles.
1) Understand and Respect the Realities of People Living in Encampments
Many people, including people responsible for municipal responses to encampments, make assumptions about the reality of people living in encampments without taking into account their voices, which means that the measures put in place may not adequately meet their needs. Homeless encampments exist because of the lack of adequate alternative housing options, colonialism, racism and systemic discrimination. People are choosing to live in encampments because, for most, a makeshift shelter in a public space is often the best or only option available to them. Before proposing solutions, it is important to take time to learn about and understand their experiences and to consider that people choose to live in encampments because housing and emergency shelters are unavailable, inaccessible or do not provide the safety and security they need.
Durable solutions will only come about when the responses address the real issues and needs identified by the people living in encampments. This cannot be done without a commitment to meaningful engagement.</p
Click here to go directly to the actions that will help put this principle into practice.
2) Publicly Recognize the Human Rights of People Living in Encampments
All governments in Canada, including municipalities, have legal obligations to respect, protect and fulfil human rights. People experiencing homelessness and living in encampments have the same human rights as everyone else in Canada.
In 2019, the National Housing Strategy Act reaffirmed Canada’s commitment to housing as a fundamental human right and recommitted Canada to the progressive realization of the right to adequate housing as defined in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The right to adequate housing is clearly defined in international human rights law and is connected to other rights, such as the right to life and to freedom from discrimination, which are part of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Explicit recognition that people living in encampments are entitled to have their human rights protected is a critical first step to changing the conversation and moving away from enforcement approaches that have failed in the past and continue to cause harm. Forced evictions are a violation of international human rights law and are inherently harmful. If a proposed action risks infringing on human rights, it must be reconsidered, and an adequate alternative must be found that meets the needs of the people living in encampments.
Adopting a human rights-based approach to encampments aligns with Canada’s human rights obligations. It provides an alternative to enforcement approaches which criminalize people for experiencing homelessness and cause further harm. It also provides a framework to understand and address the systemic nature of homelessness in Canada and design and implement long-term solutions to realize the human rights of people living in encampments.
A human rights-based approach to encampments is focused on finding sustainable solutions that will provide access to adequate housing. It ensures that all policies and plans to support people living in encampments are designed following meaningful engagement and implemented in compliance with international human rights standards. In the absence of concrete possibilities for adequate housing, a human rights-based approach requires taking immediate actions to protect the human rights of people experiencing homelessness, including the right to life, and making available services that meet their fundamental needs.
Click here to go directly to the actions that will help put this principle into practice.
3) Recognize and Uphold the Rights of First Nations, Inuit and Métis People Living in Encampments
As a direct result of colonization and displacement, First Nations, Inuit and Métis people are acutely overrepresented in Canada’s population of people experiencing homelessness and of those living in encampments. Encampment responses must integrate the rights found in the United Nations Declaration on the Right of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Métis, Inuit, and First Nations governments must be supported in managing and implementing housing solutions that reflect self-governance and community-specific needs.
Urban Indigenous populations are overrepresented in encampments and face distinct housing challenges, including inadequate access to culturally appropriate services as well as systemic barriers to affordable housing. It is critical to establish dedicated financial mechanisms to bridge jurisdictional gaps and provide sustainable housing solutions for Indigenous communities regardless of where they live.
Click here to go directly to the actions that will help put this principle into practice.
4) Build and Maintain the Trust of People Living in Encampments
Meaningful engagement with people living in encampments is an essential component of a human rights-based approach and a necessary step in finding sustainable housing solutions. It must be built upon relationships of trust that demonstrate transparency, accountability and integrity. All too often, people living in encampments are asked for their opinions without their ideas being taken into consideration. Engagement processes that are sincere and focus on the real interest of people living in encampments help to establish and strengthen bonds of trust.
Meaningful engagement takes time and requires the investment of resources. To achieve this, it is essential to provide people living in encampments with the support they need to overcome obstacles to their participation in engagement processes and to ensure they see that their voice has a real impact.
When such engagement processes are implemented authentically with the genuine intention to bring about positive change, they lead to concrete solutions that respect the rights of people living in encampments, as opposed to Band-Aid fixes that waste time and taxpayer money and further harm the people affected. Meaningful engagement with people living in encampments requires a proactive approach to involve them in finding solutions that can pre-empt community concerns.
If no individuals from encampments wish or are able to participate meaningfully in an engagement process, it is crucial to examine the reasons for this. Was the process authentic? Was it implemented with integrity? Was every effort made to create truly accessible spaces and to ensure that the interests of people living in encampments were represented effectively? Did their perspectives inform decisions?
Click here to go directly to the actions that will help put this principle into practice.
5) Provide Services Adapted to the Needs and Realities of People Living in Encampments
People living in encampments do not have access to the same basic services as those who are living in adequate housing, particularly in terms of protection from the elements and access to potable water and waste collection, for example. They face challenges accessing the care they need to protect their physical and mental health, including harm reduction supports to save the lives of people who use substances. Although in Canada, records of mortality rates for people experiencing homelessness are inconsistent or even absent in several provinces, research demonstrates that the difficult living conditions experienced by people experiencing homelessness are clearly a risk factor for mortality
To save lives and uphold the dignity of people living in encampments, it is critical to also advance the right to health of people living in encampments, ensuring that services are available to address their fundamental and complex mental and physical health needs.
Click here to go directly to the actions that will help put this principle into practice.
6) Facilitate Participation in Decision-Making for People Living in Encampments
Excluding people living in encampments from decision-making processes perpetuates their marginalization and undermines their right to autonomy. This kind of exclusion undermines trust and compromises efforts to build meaningful relationships.
It is important that engagement processes begin as early as possible and that they be ongoing to facilitate the participation of people living in encampments. Encampment residents must be included in decision-making processes concerning the policies, programs, practices and laws that affect them. Their perspective must be taken into account in the decisions that directly influence their lives if we are to achieve real, sustainable solutions.
Click here to go directly to the actions that will help put this principle into practice.
7) Support the Self-Determination and Autonomy of People Living in Encampments
Encampment responses should be designed to uphold the dignity of people living in encampments as well as their autonomy to be part of decisions that affect their lives. Consultations are a mere formality when decisions have already been made, making it clear to encampment residents that their input is not important. It is critical to stop instrumentalizing people living in encampments solely to satisfy consultation requirements. It is important to remember that people living in encampments are able to think critically and have the ability to organize and make decisions about their own lives.
It is also important to put in place measures to empower and build the confidence of people living in encampments by, for example, supporting their shared responsibility for managing and maintaining their encampment. This can enhance a sense of belonging in the community, provide stability and be an important step in a person’s journey to adequate housing.
Click here to go directly to the actions that will help put this principle into practice.
8) Continue to Work Towards Long-Term, Adequate Housing Solutions
Encampments are not a solution to the housing and homelessness crisis. Municipal efforts must continue to prioritize adequate housing that meets international standards for security of tenure, availability of services, affordability, habitability, accessibility, location and cultural adequacy at the same time as efforts are undertaken to protect the human rights of people living in encampments.
To adopt a human rights-based approach, it is essential for municipalities to quickly establish services that meet the immediate needs of people living in encampments while protecting their lives and dignity. They must also continue to fully mobilize their own resources to facilitate access to adequate housing, along with the necessary and desired support services. It is important that municipalities continue their advocacy with other levels of government to secure funding to achieve these ends. People should not be forced or required to go to an emergency shelter before being considered for a permanent and adequate housing solution.
Click here to go directly to the actions that will help put this principle into practice.