Ariel Tozman –
Some community members applaud new Ontario legislation passed in June to break up housing encampments and reduce public drug use. But others warn the move criminalizes homelessness while failing to offer any real solutions.
Bill 6, named the Safer Municipalities Act, makes open drug consumption – including in tents and encampments on park grounds – punishable by up to a $10,000 fine and/or imprisonment for up to six months. It empowers police to arrest anyone they suspect of using illicit substances in public and to order suspects to leave the area immediately.
Bill 10, dubbed the Protect Ontario Through Safer Streets and Stronger Communities Act, makes some landlords including non-profit housing providers liable for any disruptive activity on their premises. If someone on site is charged with a drug offense, the property can be closed.
The Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association said Bill 10 could harm providers’ ability to house vulnerable tenants. Non-profit providers have tight budgets and “can’t take on new safety costs alone,” it said.
Individuals found guilty of knowingly allowing drug use on their property face fines of up to $250,000. Corporations could pay up to $1,000,000.
On the other side, the Cabbagetown South Resident’s Association said in a statement that the two bills will “finally provide tools that may help to address the crisis at Dundas and Sherbourne.”
This area, especially around service providers with shelter space, has deteriorated into “open-air markets for drugs, disorder, and violence,” the association board wrote. Residents and businesses face daily safety risks, it said. “We cannot help the most vulnerable when the very places meant to support them have themselves become unsafe.”
Before Bill 6 passed, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association wrote Premier Doug Ford expressing “urgent concerns” with the “punitive and harmful measures” it contained.
“Incarceration and fines that unhoused people may never be able to pay only serve to further marginalize individuals,” the CCLA wrote. “These ‘solutions’ do not address the underlying issues that have caused this crisis, such as the elevated cost of living.”
Bill 6 will drive individuals to use substances more quickly and in dangerous settings, and increase the risk of overdoses, the CCLA warned.
More than 81,500 people are homeless in the province, according to a recent report from the Association of Municipalities of Ontario. Alongside Bills 6 and 10, the province announced $75.5 million in funding to “wind down encampments” by developing more shelter space and affordable housing units.
Last year, Toronto invested over $788 million into homelessness support services.
“The more barriers that are put into place to getting housing, the more the homelessness problem will get worse,” said Ahsen Bhatti, a social services coordinator at Sojourn House. Many advocates are concerned that Bill 6 emphasizes moving people out of encampments without providing “a clear guideline of where they’re being moved to or where they’re meant to go,” Bhatti said.
The province seems to want to make homelessness less visible, he said, but the problem isn’t going to disappear if people aren’t getting the resources they need.
Encampment residents in the Moss Park area “often get their tents broken down, or told they have to leave or they’ll be jailed,” Bhatti added. “Bills like this open the door for that kind of harassment and that kind of dehumanization.”
In 2023, Toronto’s Ombudsman found the city “displayed insufficient regard” for the people it removed from encampments in Alexandra, Trinity-Bellwoods, and Lamport Stadium parks in the summer of 2021. The city failed to “live up to its stated commitments to fairness and a human rights-based approach to housing.”
Even if the city determines it is necessary to move people out of encampments for safety or other reasons, the Ombudsman said, it should prioritize their needs and help them with physical and mental health services.
“Fines and jail time are not the deeply affordable housing our most vulnerable residents desperately need,” Ward 13 (Toronto Centre) Councillor Chris Moise wrote in a blog post about the new laws.
The Cabbagetown association countered that “No one is asking for essential services to vulnerable people to be removed, only that service providers be held accountable and required to operate in ways that do not fuel illegal activity or disorder.”
In 2020, the federal government deprioritized criminal charges for simple possession and personal use of drugs.
