Episode 15: The Politics of Encampments

Part TWO of ENCAMPMENT COMMUNITIES COUNT

This episode of Homelessness In Hiding: Our Youth Between the Cracks is the second of a four-part series about Encampment Communities. Michelle Bilek, the National Field Organizer for the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, explains how encampment communities intersect with the discussion of human rights, what it means to exercise our human rights while experiencing homelessness, and how the Region of Peel and its citizens can better approach encampment communities to keep them safe and legitimate.

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Encampment communities have been around for decades, but the COVID-19 pandemic has complicated and proliferated their existence in Peel, Canada, and worldwide. At the beginning of the pandemic, the Region of Peel supported the increase in encampment communities, even promising that established communities would not be disturbed. Ontario, as well, was supporting folks by providing municipalities like Peel with emergency funding to provide folks experiencing homelessness with rooms in hotels and motels if they wanted them.

Now, however, in 2022, much of that funding–much of that understanding, that compassion–has run out. Let's talk about that.

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Further Reading:

Kitchener-Waterloo Supporting Encampment Communities

A National Strategy for Encampment Communities (Make the Shift)

October 10th - World Homeless Day

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Follow up with the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube

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About the Guest:

Michelle Bilek

National Field Organizer | Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness | She/Her

Michelle advocates in her daily life for social responsibility, poverty reduction, homelessness, equity and inclusion, violence against woman, and food insecuity.

Learn more about Michelle.

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About the Host:

Mya Moniz

Peer Support Leader | REST Centres She/Her

Mya is an independent youth and Former Crown Ward of the Peel Children’s Aid Society. She’s achieved an Honours Bachelor of Arts with High Distinction from the University of Toronto in English, Professional Writing and Communications, and Sociology. She also sits at the Senior Leadership Table for the Peel Alliance to End Homelessness as a youth with lived experience.

Mya believes there is great power in healing, growth, and catharsis through writing and storytelling, and she strives to help others tell their stories the way she tells hers.