What can municipalities do about homelessness?

La version française de ce billet se trouve ici.

I recently contributed an essay to a paper series produced by the University of Toronto’s Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance (the full essay can be downloaded here). The focus of my own essay is the role Canadian municipalities play in addressing homelessness.

Here are 10 things to know.

1. Land-use planning is one way in which municipalities can help address homelessness. Municipal governments decide which areas of their municipality can be zoned for what purposes, how the public is to be engaged in considering projects, how quickly approvals can occur, and which proposals to approve. This is relevant to the creation of emergency shelters, day-time facilities for persons experiencing homelessness, and various types of housing (including supportive housing).

2. Another role relates to bylaw creation and enforcement. Municipal governments enact and enforce bylaws that are relevant to panhandling and outdoor sleeping. The nature of these laws depends on enabling legislation passed by provincial/territorial governments. Bylaws also have important implications for outdoor sleeping, including encampment management.

3. Municipalities can play important roles with respect to the coordination of local homelessness responses. Homelessness takes on unique forms in different municipalities. Factors that vary across municipalities include: the amount of revenue collected through taxes and other revenue sources; availability of low-cost housing; labour market conditions; migration; weather; and the composition of each municipality’s Indigenous population. Staff working for municipalities have a ‘municipal wide’ perspective, with capacity to understand those factors that are unique to their own municipality.

4. Municipal officials can play an important convening role. Many municipal officials have longstanding relationships with leaders in the local homeless-serving sector. This helps municipal officials bring together service providers to discuss matters of common concern. Municipalities can also use their political clout to bring together federal, provincial and territorial officials, as well as the corporate sector.

5. One example of a municipal government playing a convening role is apparent with the City of Ottawa. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the City of Ottawa Housing Services convened a multi-departmental Unsheltered Task Force to develop a coordinated response to a rise in outdoor sleeping. This group included representation from various city departments, Ottawa Police, local outreach service providers, the National Capital Commission, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, VIA Rail Police Service, the Coalition of Business Improvement Areas and Crime Prevention Ottawa (you can read more about this here).

6. Most municipalities own a large number of facilities (e.g., community centres and arenas). Such facilities typically include washrooms, large floor space and sometimes shower facilities. Municipal officials therefore have the option of designating the use of such buildings for persons experiencing homelessness. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the temporary use of such facilities for persons experiencing homelessness was prominent in several Canadian municipalities (you can read more about that here).

7. Most municipalities own land that can be used to address homelessness. Such land can be used for emergency facilities or supportive housing. It can also be sold to non-profit entities at a discount. Several Canadian municipalities have provided land at a steep discount to non-profits developing housing under the Rapid Housing Initiative, a federal funding initiative that began in 2020. Unlike the temporary provision of facilities (discussed above), the sale or donation of land can create long-term space for persons experiencing homelessness.

8. Municipal governments (and their related service boards) often exercise considerable oversight of public services. This includes oversight over local police forces, fire departments, libraries, public transit, and parks. Municipalities often fund such services either entirely or in part. In addition, they typically have membership on each service’s governing council (e.g., Toronto Police Services Board). Many such services have direct relevance to the local homelessness sector.

9. Municipal governments can leverage their large staffing pools for homelessness. Some of these personnel focus on homelessness in their day to day (e.g., outreach staff employed directly by the City of Toronto) while others practise in the human services sector. Many such staff can be redeployed in the event of a homelessness crisis.

10. Some mayors and city councillors choose to be homelessness champions. During the 1980s and 1990s, such leadership came from Jack Layton (who was a Toronto City Councillor before making the move to federal politics in 2003). More recently, homelessness has benefitted from advocacy from Gregor Robertson (Mayor of Vancouver from 2008 until 2018) and Don Iveson (Mayor of Edmonton from 2013 until 2021).

In sum. Municipalities have many levers at their disposal to address homelessness. They can partner with other orders of government, non-profit agencies, persons with lived experience, and the private sector. Some municipalities have chosen to be more active than others.

I wish to thank Sylvia Regnier, Vincent St-Martin and Alex Tétreault for assistance with this blog post.