Federal housing advocate Marie-Josée Houle is urging the federal government to expand and sustain funding that helps municipalities respond to homelessness and encampments. Her recommendations follow a September tour of Hamilton, Cambridge, Kitchener, London, and Toronto, where she met with people experiencing homelessness, service providers, and local officials. Houle found consistent problems across cities: systemic breakdowns and severe shortages of affordable housing, shelters unsuitable as long-term options, heightened risks during extreme weather, and increased dangers for women and gender-diverse people. Community organizations are overstretched and often face hostility, while federal and provincial funding remains inadequate.
Her report calls for human-rights-based responses, including ending forced encampment evictions, integrating housing and health care, expanding culturally specific and trauma-informed supports for Indigenous people, addressing gender-based violence, improving extreme-weather strategies, empowering community organizations, and protecting refugee claimants’ right to adequate housing.
In Cambridge, Houle heard that small, scattered encampments face constant displacement and that residents and service providers feel ignored and sometimes openly targeted by officials or vigilantes. In Kitchener, people living at the 100 Victoria St. encampment expressed insecurity amid a planned clearance tied to a new transit hub. Many said their needs were unmet and they were not consulted. Regional officials say they are reviewing the report.
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