Seite - 359 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19

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: Employment  and  Social  Development  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.