Canada’s housing advocate has a roadmap to end homelessness. What is it?

Marie-Josée Houle on Tuesday called for an end to forced evictions of encampments and urged “alternatives that are designed following meaningful engagement with encampment residents.”

The OFHA report, released on Tuesday, calls on the federal government to create a National Encampments Response Plan that recognizes Canada’s human rights obligations and commits resources to ending chronic homelessness.

Speaking to Global News, Houle said her review of encampments across Canada revealed that the problem was not just limited to the big cities.

“I found that this is a national crisis, that there’s no place that’s immune. It’s not just a big urban centre issue. It is one that is found everywhere across the country, including the most remote places and in the far north.”

She told Global News, “We need to see the end to forced evictions because they never work. This top-down approach has to stop.”

She said in the long run, shelters cannot be the only solution and says Canada needs more non-market housing, which refers to housing provided for low and moderate-income groups not traditionally served by the private market.

“It’s really important to consider the role of non-market housing. Only four per cent of the rentals in Canada are non-market and they are valuable,” Houle said.

On Thursday, Houle met with Housing Minister Sean Fraser and Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu to brief them about the report. She recommended that the federal government establish a National Encampments Response Plan by Aug. 31 this year.

She said there exists now a “patchwork” of responses across the country instead of a coordinated response. She said only the federal government could bring different stakeholders to the table.

“We need all governments to