Ottawa, Ontario – Office of the Federal Housing Advocate
The Federal Housing Advocate is calling for long-term, coordinated investments to support human rights–based responses to encampments.
In a report released today, the Advocate found that the Unsheltered Homelessness and Encampments Initiative (UHEI) has initiated important early steps toward human rights–based approaches and contributed to finding people housing. However, the UHEI's limited duration and funding have significantly constrained progress.
The UHEI, a two-year federal initiative, was created to provide municipalities with resources to respond to encampments with human rights–based approaches. In Ontario, participating municipalities — the Region of Waterloo, London, Hamilton, and Toronto — matched federal funds, bringing new capacity to local responses.
In September 2025, the Advocate travelled to several communities across Ontario to visit homeless encampments, meet with people with lived experience and service providers, and engage with municipal and provincial decision-makers.
During her engagements, the Advocate heard from the municipal leaders that there is a need for long-term, predictable funding to plan and coordinate housing, healthcare, and other supports.
The urgency of the homelessness and encampments crisis that prompted the UHEI's creation still exists — and, in most places, has deepened. Without sustained federal leadership, municipalities are forced back into crisis-driven, enforcement-based approaches that violate human rights and waste public resources. Additional coordinated provincial and territorial investments, particularly in healthcare supports, are urgently needed.
Across the four municipalities visited, the Advocate observed efforts to integrate elements of a human rights–based approach into encampment responses. Nonetheless, she remains concerned about the limited involvement of people living in encampments in plans that affect them, inadequate engagement with Indigenous Peoples, and the continued reliance on enforcement and forced evictions.
The report contains recommendations aimed at all levels of government to continue to respond to encampments using human rights-based approaches and to address the underlying causes that drive them.
The Advocate is calling on federal, provincial, territorial, and municipal governments to work together to ensure long-term, dedicated funding for human rights–based responses to encampments and support the people living in them.
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“Communities across Canada are responding to an escalating encampments crisis – which is a human rights crisis. Everyone in Canada has the right to dignified, adequate housing.
The UHEI was a necessary and positive first step to support municipalities who are on the front lines of responding to encampments. Now, we must see long-term support. Short-term funding cannot drive the systemic changes required to uphold the rights and dignity of people living in encampments.
The federal government must lead the way to ensure there are adequate resources to respond to encampments and support the people living in them.”
– Marie-Josée Houle, Federal Housing Advocate
The Advocate's recommendations call on all levels of government to:
Federal funding for Community Encampment Response Plans has started rolling out to Canadian cities under the Unsheltered Homelessness and Encampments Initiative. From her engagements, the Advocate heard that:
613-943-9118
communications@chrc-ccdp.gc.ca
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