Housing Minister Sean Fraser told reporters Tuesday he blames all Canadians for the “moral failure” of homelessness, denying any policy failures. Fraser said he planned to act on a federal report, Upholding Dignity And Human Rights: The Federal Housing Advocate’s Review Of Homeless Encampments, which recommended a ban on policing of tent cities with free food, utilities and medical care for residents, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. The report, which has a deadline for federal response by no later than August 31 2024, recommended taxpayers provide “access to clean water, sanitation, food, heating and cooling, accessibility supports, health care and harm reductions.” . “I will not be able to say with a straight face that I have properly addressed the housing crisis if we still have to walk past people who are sleeping on the streets in Canada,” Fraser said. “We have to ask ourselves not just as a government but as a society, and this includes all levels of government by the way, what kind of country do we want to live in?” he continued. When asked if homelessness is a policy failure, Fraser said, “I think it’s a generational moral failure that there are people who are sleeping without a roof over their head in a country as wealthy as Canada.”“We will in advance of that deadline (August 31) be able to advance a suite of measures designed specifically to address the homelessness challenge,” said Minister Fraser. .“The Housing Advocate’s report appropriately shines a light on the immense need the communities are facing and the people who are currently unhoused,” said Fraser. “We are working now to develop an appropriate response.”“It’s important that we look to take care of the most vulnerable. Not only, though, by trying to support cities that are seeking to end the use of encampments, but to provide lasting solutions for the people who are living in them now. It’s not enough to throw money into a community and say, ‘Here, go fix the problem.’”.The Review Of Homeless Encampments report was released Tuesday by Housing Advocate Marie-Josée Houle and demanded Parliament ban all evictions of tent cities on public lands and “ensure police, bylaw enforcement officers and private security firms do not play any direct role in managing encampments.”Further recommendation asked that legislators:• “recognize people have a right to live in encampments;”• “halt the confiscation of belongings along with surveillance and harassment;”• “end practices which make drug use grounds for displacement;”• “ensure protection from the poison drug supply through access to harm reduction services and regulated safe supply for encampment residents;”• “repeal regulations that restrict people experiencing homelessness from accessing public space;”• “refrain from actions and language that further stigmatizes the residents of encampments;”• “ban ‘hostile architecture’ e.g. spikes on sidewalks or armchair rests on benches designed to stop homeless people from sitting, sleeping and sheltering.”
