Learning from Lived Experience: Raising the Voices of those in Halton’s Encampments

Illustration depicting one of the encampment sites visited July 2025. Other details provided reflect what peers shared while we searched for people to connect with.

Project Highlights, Summer 2025

         As summer once again comes to a close, we reflect on some highlights from our Lived Experience Initiative. Our Peer Researchers, who have lived experience with some of the toughest impacts of the housing and affordability crisis, have brought their unique gifts and passions to support our neighbors and engage in new ways to approach housing and homelessness in our communities.

        From June to September, our outreach has involved hosting story-sharing circles in shelter spaces in both Oakville and Burlington, encampment visits across Halton Region, Public Living Rooms to facilitate connection and conversation among Halton residents, collaboration with community partners to plan outreach strategies together, and working towards “human first” approaches to outreach and service provision informed by voices of lived experience. Along the way, we learned a great deal about how to connect with people impacted by the housing crisis and how we might proceed going forward.

       Our approach to encampment outreach has been one such learning opportunity, which included several methods as we adapt to an ever-changing landscape. Due to encampments and their residents moving from site to site for safety or access to resources, it can be difficult to know whether a site is going to be abandoned or still in use. Moreover, knowing when to visit each day when someone will be home can also be a barrier to connecting with encampment residents. Throughout these visits, I learned a lot from the Peer Team about how we might look at these sites from the perspective of lived experience – notably, recognizing the multiple entrances/exit routes, the types of edible plants to be found nearby, the signs of habitation (carts, clearings, ideal places for a tent), and the stories that surround the sites (notably, the network of trails spanning North Burlington that lead to other locations). The Peer Team has also been critical in networking with others who are currently unhoused to locate additional sites to visit. These informal networks in community are going to be critical aspects of our encampment outreach going forward as we try to remain aware of active sites and where people go when they vacate.

Our team has been exploring opportunities to setup a Public Living Room to build community around spaces people with similar experience might access. This kind of event has the potential to bring people together long enough for them to explore their own gifts and that of others and establishes a space where people can be as they are and explore ideas together. We hope that the PLRs become one approach to connect with voices of lived experience, as well as contribute opportunities for connection in our public spaces that are deeply human.

When we connect with people in encampments or community circles, we ask questions related to resources, gifts, and insights. Some of these lines of inquiry include:

• What services and spaces are important to you?

• Is there anything you would like to see happen to help people feel a sense of belonging in these spaces?

• What gifts do you have that you could bring to help make this possible?

• What would you like/want/need from the community to make these efforts as wonderfully successful as possible?

The responses people provide have been both meaningful and impactful. People have shared with us services and spaces where their need for food and community is met, and where they feel a sense of belonging. Some of these spaces have included libraries, neighbourhood centres, churches, and community meal programs. Importantly, as we bring people together to share stories and receive feedback about housing and homelessness from folks with lived experience, people have shared the significance of coming together to share with one another and build community. Through these efforts we hope to continue convening people in community spaces and encampments with the goal of not only learning and sharing resources but building a sense of peer support and community that help people move through challenging and difficult situations and experiences.

Stay tuned for upcoming events in the community related to housing and homelessness, including our upcoming November Right to Housing Day Forum and peer-led engagements at the Oakville Public Library and Halton Hills Public Library in December and January, respectively! If you’d like to read more about our work in the community, visit the Lived Experience Initiative tab here.