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359The
Front Line Defence: Housing and Human Rights in the Time of COVID-19
face significant health challenges, including high rates of respiratory
illnesses, putting them at greater risk of contracting COVID-19.7 This
population often lacks access to clean water and sanitation facilities,
and available homeless shelters often operate at or over capacity,8
making it impossible to physically distance.
Given that the Government of Canada’s primary public health
directive in response to COVID-19 was to “stay home,” the policy
response should have been the immediate elimination of street home-
lessness. Other cities have implemented urgent efforts to transition
people off the streets in the wake of COVID-19, including Belfast
(Ireland)9 and London (U.K.).10 Such a response would have been
in keeping with the National Housing Strategy Act (NHSA), which
stipulates that the housing policy of the Government of Canada rec-
ognizes that the right to adequate housing is a fundamental human
right affirmed in international law. Under international human rights
law, homelessness is understood as a prima facie violation of the right
to housing, and requires immediate steps be taken to eliminate it.
Instead of implementing a national rights-based response to home-
lessness and housing need during COVID-19, the federal government
has largely left it to provinces/territories and municipalities to develop
their own approaches.11 As a result, policy responses to homelessness
have primarily taken four forms: (i) abandonment, (ii) emergency relief,
(iii) heightened law enforcement, and (iv) housing-led responses.
Abandonment
In some Canadian communities, people experiencing homelessness
have been left to fend for themselves in the wake of COVID-19. With
7. Robert W Aldridge et al, “Morbidity and Mortality in Homeless Individuals,
Prisoners, Sex Workers, and Individuals with Substance Use Disorders in High-
Income Countries: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis”, The Lancet (2018)
391:10117 241.
8. “Shelter Capacity Report 2018” (2018), online: EmploymentÂ
andÂ
SocialÂ
DevelopmentÂ
Canada <www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/programs/home-
lessness/publications-bulletins/shelter-capacity-2018.html>.
9. See e.g. Shauna Corr, “Coronavirus Pandemic Sees Homeless People in Belfast All
Get a Place to Stay”, Belfast Live (30 March 2020), online: <www.belfastlive.co.uk/
news/belfast-news/coronavirus-pandemic-sees-homeless-people-18009375>.
10. See e.g. “Coronavirus: Rough Sleepers in London Given Hotel Rooms”, BBC
News (21 March 2020), <www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-51987345>.
11. David Hulchanski at al, “Finding Room: Policy Options for a Canadian Rental
Housing Strategy” (2005) 92:10 Urban Studies 1881.
VULNERABLE
The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Title
- VULNERABLE
- Subtitle
- The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Authors
- Vanessa MacDonnell
- Jane Philpott
- Sophie Thériault
- Sridhar Venkatapuram
- Publisher
- Ottawa Press
- Date
- 2020
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 9780776636429
- Size
- 15.2 x 22.8 cm
- Pages
- 648
- Categories
- Coronavirus
- International