Pandemic Encampments: A Case Study of Toronto’s Homeless Encampments (Through a Human Rights-based Approach) During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Cities across North America have seen an increase in groups of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness together. The City of Toronto specifically is experiencing one of the deepest housing crises to date. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, many people lived in encampments. However, they were largely invisible as they were pushed out of sight by law-enforcement and criminalized by municipal legislation. The City’s response to encampments during the pandemic has demonstrate systemic violence, criminalization, and displacement of unhoused residents. This paper aims to analyze the role of homeless encampments through a human rights-based approach to housing by analyzing encampments during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through this paper, I aim to establish that encampments are sites of resistance to state violence and insufficient interventions. The resistance of unhoused residents and sites of encampments offers a radical change in perspective to housing and a call to action– one that is based in human rights.