B.C. to push forward encampment injunction changes despite backlash from municipalities, says housing minister

British Columbia will push forward controversial proposed changes that will impact how municipalities can respond to homeless encampments, the province's housing minister said Thursday, despite calls from the Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM), B.C.'s human rights commissioner and several civil liberties groups to hit pause.

If passed, Bill 45 would amend the two charters that outline how municipalities are governed in B.C. — the Community Charter and Vancouver Charter — to require municipalities to prove there is "reasonably available" alternative shelter for displaced residents before applying for an injunction to clear a homeless encampment. 

The bill defines alternative shelter as a placed that allows a person to stay overnight with access to a bathroom, shower and at least one meal per day at or near the shelter, and that is staffed while people are sheltering there.

"This is important to create that certainty so that we don't have to rely on the courts to continue to make decisions," Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon told media at the Legislature Thursday.

The omnibus Bill 45, which includes changes to several other statutes, passed its second reading on Monday and is now at the committee stage with the fall legislative session set to end on Nov. 30. 

The UBCM says the requirements for alternative shelter are too onerous and the province failed to properly consult with them on the changes.

Members worry it would allow for more encampments to be established in parks and on sidewalks given a dearth of qualifying shelter spaces, said UBCM in a Thursday statement.

"Currently there isn't any community in B.C. that has the necessary shelter space relative to its homeless population," Trish Mandewo, president of the UBCM and a councillor in Coquitlam, told CBC's On The Island Thursday.

"We think that Bill 45 will take away a key tool for managing sheltering and we think the province should be withdrawing the bill."

But Kasari Govender, B.C.'s Human Rights Commissioner, said in a Friday statement "Bill 45 largely sets a lower standard for what is meant by 'adequate shelter' than courts have already done."

"I am concerned that Bill 45 creates the illusion of a loophole for local governments to forcibly evict encampment residents with nowhere else to go — a loophole that is contrary to human rights principles and legal protections," said Govender.

More than 100 lawyers, housing advocates and health-care workers agree with Govender, calling the bill's provisions dealing with reasonably available alternative shelter "harmful," and "likely unconstitutional," in a Tuesday open letter signed by several civil liberties and Indigenous organizations.

"This is trying to impose a very low level, one-size-fits-all solution on a group of people that have very diverse needs that are often not met by these bare bones thresholds," Aislin Jackson, a staff lawyer with the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, told CBC's On The Island on Thursday.

"In theory, any space that is indoors, that has the food available, that has a bathroom somewhere on the block, perhaps that has staff members, would qualify, even if that was a 24-hour Tim Hortons."

Municipal approvals holding up shelter space: minister

As the number of people facing homelessness has risen in some B.C. communities, municipalities have raised concerns about safety, sanitation, fire risks and health-care access at encampments, with several cities evicting residents and clearing sites in moves some advocates say pushes residents into even more unsafe living conditions.

Some court rulings have struck down some injunctions to enforce eviction orders for encampments due to a lack of availability of other places to shelter, establishing what Govender says are "human rights obligations for local governments" to not evict residents "except in exceptional circumstances and only when adequate shelter is available."

Kahlon says the province has met with the UBCM and is moving forward with the bill's changes, which he says are important to ensure people can move into adequate shelters and long-term housing.

"We fully agree that encampments are not safe, for either the people living in them or the community at large," Kahlon said. 

Mandewo says municipalities are struggling to manage encampments and need more tools to address them, including injunctions and additional shelter spaces.

Kahlon says the province wants to fund more shelter and long-term affordable housing projects, but several municipal governments have not approved proposed locations for the projects.

"If they can agree on a location, we have money for shelter spaces," said Kahlon. "Because I think everybody in British Columbia would agree that it's better to have people indoors than having them sleeping in parks and camps."