IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/mfg/wpaper/73.html

The Governance of Homeless Encampments in Canada

Author

Listed:
  • Alexandra Flynn
  • Estair Van Wagner

    (University of Toronto)

Abstract

This paper examines municipal governance of homeless encampments amid rising levels of homelessness across Canada and a fragmented housing policy framework. We examine the international and domestic laws that apply in this area, as well as court decisions related to municipal bylaws and practices. We then map some municipal approaches across Canada, highlighting bylaw enforcement, temporary shelters, and emergent rights-based practices. Our analysis identifies persistent barriers, such as jurisdictional ambiguity, shelter inaccessibility, and misconceptions about the costs of rights-based models. We suggest that homeless encampments are a human rights crisis, and an opportunity for municipalities to catalyze change by aligning their approaches with human rights principles and investing in the conditions that make housing stability possible.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexandra Flynn & Estair Van Wagner, 2025. "The Governance of Homeless Encampments in Canada," IMFG Papers 73, University of Toronto, Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance.
    • Handle: RePEc:mfg:wpaper:73
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://utoronto.scholaris.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/1b022af3-a9d3-42cb-86a7-45914958a229/content?authentication-token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJlaWQiOiJhOWQ4YTcyYy0xYWE0LTQ5ZmUtOTgwYi1kNDQ3MTQ4NWIwYjEiLCJzZyI6W10sImV4cCI6MTc2NDE4NjEyNiwiYXV0aGVudGljYXRpb25NZXRob2QiOiJwYXNzd29yZCJ9.7lOMMsfziW5kA_Tvdz9Sd39cp2_mO3eoCyRWQKQgOpw
    File Function: First version, 2025
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • H70 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - General
    • I13 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Insurance, Public and Private

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:mfg:wpaper:73. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Enid Slack (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/imfutca.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.