We, the undersigned, call for an immediate moratorium in Waterloo Region on the encampment evictions of unhoused people.

“Forced evictions are an egregious violation of human rights law and should never be undertaken in any circumstances”

~ The Shift, led by Leilani Farha, the former UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing, in partnership with United Cities Local Government and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

On Friday November 26, 2021, many people were shocked, disgusted, and heartbroken when Region of Waterloo bylaw, together with police, as part of an encampment eviction, used a front-end loader to destroy the shelters and possessions of unhoused people at the corner of Charles and Stirling streets.

We want to be clear that while the use of heavy machinery was violent, harmful and gross, the problem is any type of encampment eviction, the heavy-handedness that is the process of displacing unhoused people from one corner to the next, from one wooded area to another. 

But it’s not just displacement, it’s the pain, trauma, and violation of evictions. Encampment removals happen on a weekly basis in Waterloo Region!

Evictions such as these put people’s lives at risk:

a) exposure and hypothermia when tents, equipment, and clothing are lost or destroyed;

b) networks of helpers are dispersed, leading to isolation. Evictions make frontline, outreach work infinitely more difficult, as workers have to find people (often fearing that they will find them dead – frozen or overdosed);

c) Naloxone is lost, and life-threatening overdoses cannot be reversed.

In the last three years, homelessness in Waterloo Region has tripled. The most recent point-in-count survey in Waterloo Region shows that 1,085 people are currently homeless. With the Region’s largest men’s shelter reducing capacity from over 100 men, to 25, more will be added to that count.

Shelters are full, there are not enough spaces. Housing is unaffordable.

It is inhumane and illegal under international human rights law to violently evict unhoused people.

An immediate moratorium in Waterloo Region on the encampment of evictions of unhoused people would:

1. Make Waterloo Region safer for our unhoused neighbours (see above).

2. Bring Waterloo Region into alignment with international human rights law: “A human rights-based approach to informal settlement upgrading requires that residents should be ensured security of tenure over the land on which they live…The principle of security of tenure is a universal right under international  human  rights law, and applies to all people,  whether  they  have formal  title  over the land on which they live, or not” ~ from The Right to Housing of Informal Settlements by The Shift, p.6

3. Make Waterloo Region a more compassionate, loving community. Within 36 hours of 2 bylaw and 6 police officers evicting people at Charles and Stirling, over 200 community members came to that same corner to stand against unacceptable and harmful encampment evictions. In unison, 200 voices chanted, loudly and clearly, “We love you!” to our unhoused neighbours and frontline workers.

Therefore, we call for an immediate moratorium in Waterloo Region on the encampment evictions of unhoused people.

(Image from the WR Record)