Homelessness is not a crime

Community organizations call for the province to Rescind Bill 6

Picture taken of an encampment in Burlington (Source)

On April 30, 2025, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing put out a news release describing the re-introduction of legislation aimed at those living in encampments.

Initially introduced as Bill 242 in December 2024, the bill received much criticism from the community and was put aside for the provincial election.

Now, brought back out into public light, the Safer Municipalities Act has been re-labeled as Bill 6, and includes two components. The first, Restricting Public Consumption of Illegal Substances Act, includes stronger enforcement action for those found consuming illegal substances in a public place. The definition for a “public place” under the act includes a tent being used as a dwelling, if the tent is not allowed in that public place.

This wording directly targets those who are living in encampments and provides the police with the authority to direct them to stop using the substance, leave the public place, and identify themselves. Failing to follow any of these orders may result in arrest, and if convicted, a fine of up to $10 000 or imprisonment for up to six months.

How would someone living in an encampment be able to pay a $10 000 fine? “That’s up to the police, that’s up to the courts to decide,” said Doug Ford in December 2024 when the act was initially introduced (Source).

The second component of the Safer Municipalities Act includes two amendments to the Trespass to Property Act that allow courts to consider repeat offences and the likelihood to re-offend as aggravating factors when courts decide on sentencing. Theses measures are meant to stop encampments from re-appearing after they have been torn down.

Again, this act has been met with widespread criticism regarding the use of police enforcement to target the issue of homelessness and allowing for practices that criminalize not having a home. Amid a housing and affordability crisis, more and more members of our community are pushed out of their homes and are resorting to encampments for survival.

Further, these measures don’t consider the increasingly complex relationship between those who have pre-existing addiction and mental health conditions and face homelessness. With a mental health care system not adequately funded to provide the supports needed for these folks to maintain their housing, criminalizing their attempts to survive outside unjustifiably punishes those most vulnerable in our society.

These legislative measures do not serve Ontario taxpayers either, whose tax money will be used to fund these efforts. A Statistic’s Canada report from 2022-2023 shows that housing a prisoner for one day costs $326 (Source). Keeping someone in a psychiatric hospital costs $486 per day, whereas housing someone in community with supports costs $72 per day (Source). The solution is clear, housing is the answer to homelessness.

The Halton Region is no exception to the homelessness crisis. In the Halton Region, a Point-in-Time (PiT) 2024 measure showed that 343 households were experiencing homelessness. Between 2021 to 2024, percentage of unsheltered homelessness increased from 2% to 18% (Source).

Community Development Halton has added our name to the Letter to the Premier put forth by the Encampment Justice Coalition. You can read the letter here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GUrFV9pq6aCNcelMViZr2fpeHH7T_8lHYRfoHb_eomo/edit?tab=t.0.