News release: New report recommends permanent federal investments in human rights-based responses to encampments

OTTAWA, ON, Dec. 4, 2025 /CNW/ - 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.

Quotes

"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

Quick facts

The Advocate's recommendations call on all levels of government to:

1. Expand and sustain federal investments in human rights-based responses to encampments
2. End forced encampment evictions and criminalization of homelessness
3. Stop using coercive methods that force people to choose between the harms of an eviction and inadequate housing
4. Integrate housing and healthcare
5. Put in place culturally specific and trauma-informed programs and supports for Indigenous people
6. Address gender-based and systemic violence
7. Put in place strategies and resources to respond to extreme weather year-round
8. Protect and empower community organizations
9. Ensure funding is provided to protect the right to adequate housing for refugee claimants

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:

• Waterloo Region used UHEI funding to expand outreach capacity and provide additional rehousing supports. Local leaders emphasized, however, that the two-year window and lack of sustained operating funds hindered long-term planning. The Advocate also heard concerns that sub-regional municipalities were not consistently aligned with Regional direction. In Cambridge, for example, encampment evictions were occurring without notifying the Region.
• London applied UHEI funds to strengthen its Whole of Community System Response, including temporary housing pods and enhanced partnerships. Yet women's organizations and Indigenous service providers reported ongoing underfunding and a lack of gender-responsive and culturally appropriate supports.
• Hamilton invested a portion of its funding in the construction of the outdoor shelter in the Barton/Tiffany area and supported Indigenous-led initiatives through its advisory committee. However, the City's recent return to enforcement-first encampment approaches -- framed partly around the availability of new outdoor shelter units -- has eroded public trust.
• Toronto dedicated $25 million to expanding its Enhanced Outreach Model at sites such as Dufferin Grove, with approximately 20 percent directed to Indigenous partners. The Advocate heard, however, that the concentration of funds in the downtown core left many encampment residents in outlying areas without adequate support.

Background

• The Federal Housing Advocate, Marie-Josée Houle, visited Southern Ontario from September 22–26, 2025, to visit homeless encampments, meet with people with lived experience and service providers, and engage with municipal and provincial decision-makers.
• The visit included stops in Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, London, Hamilton, and Toronto.
• The visit followed her February 2024 report on homeless encampments, which sparked national attention. The federal government's initial response to the Advocate's report and recommendations included a new investment of $250M in the 2024 budget to be matched by provinces, territories, and municipalities for human rights-based solutions to encampments. This funding for Community Encampment Response Plans has started rolling out to Canadian cities under the Unsheltered Homelessness and Encampments Initiative.

Helpful links

• Full report: What We Heard About Federal, Provincial, and Municipal Responses to Homeless Encampments: The Federal Housing Advocate's Visit to Southern Ontario
• Federal Housing Advocate to visit Southern Ontario to monitor encampment responses
• Upholding dignity and human rights: the Federal Housing Advocate's review of homeless encampments
• Federal Housing Advocate urges government to prioritize non-market housing in a new report

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SOURCE Office of the Federal Housing Advocate

Media contacts: Media Relations, 613-943-9118, [email protected]