Proposed Encampment Protocol

Since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, communities across Canada have increasingly grappled with the need to find solutions that address the needs of both people living in encampments and the broader communities they exist within.

Encampments are the result of several conditions including:

• a lack of affordable housing, particularly with supports;
• limited emergency shelter space;
• an opioid epidemic;
• untreated and exacerbated mental health issues;
• a broader lack of affordability for basic needs; and
• insufficient resources at a municipal level to address these issues.

As such, encampments are likely to exist for the foreseeable future in lieu of significant intervention from other levels of government.

The needs of people experiencing homelessness and the regulatory and governance landscape has evolved over the past few years, which means that the City of Hamilton needs to change with it to ensure we can compassionately and responsibility support and assist unhoused Hamilton residents.

Hamilton’s actively homeless population has consistently remained over 1,500 since December 2021 and currently sits at 1,615 as of April 2023.

From a legal perspective, in 2019 the Federal government has enshrined housing as a human right in legislation under the National Housing Strategy Act, and in 2023, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled that municipalities need to have places for people experiencing homelessness to go – such as shelters or other housing solutions – before asking individuals to leave encampments.

Proposed steps to better assist individuals living unsheltered are:

a) sanctioned encampments that can provide individuals with a safe and stable environment to live in, and
b) an encampment protocol that would permit individuals experiencing homelessness to live in outdoor locations separate from a sanctioned site.

This provides a framework of where people could stay in the event that they do not feel comfortable staying at a sanctioned site or if the City of Hamilton does not pursue sanctioned encampment sites as a policy.

Key elements of the proposed encampment protocol included:

• A housing first approach where the City prioritizes finding individuals more stable housing over ensuring that individuals do not camp in public places. This may necessarily mean that individuals are permitted reside in encampments in public spaces until that accommodation can be found.
• A limit of five tents per encampment area that require minimum amount of personal space and minimum distances between other encampments
• Prohibiting encampments from being near highways, pathways, bridges, sidewalks, fire routes, and accessibility entrances, schools, day cares or areas with high environmentally sensitive or heritage designations
• Minimum distances from recreational assets and private property

WHAT'S NEXT

Following the collection of feedback, City of Hamilton staff will be providing Council with community feedback on the topic of sanctioned encampment sites and will be presenting a revised protocol to Council inclusive of community feedback. That feedback, supplemented by a scan of what is being done by other municipalities, is schedule to be presented to Council for their review and decision in August of 2023.

Share your ideas on the document, complete the survey, or ask a question for Housing Services! Commenting period closes 11:59pm on June 30.