London City Council has endorsed the Community Encampment Response Plan, which is the remaining strategy component of the Health and Homelessness Whole of Community System Response, following the previously endorsed plan for highly supportive housing and plan for hubs offering transitional housing and health supports.
The Community Encampment Response Plan is grounded in a human rights-based approach that supports individuals in encampments, and outlines transactional outreach and transformational case-management to support an individual’s pathway out of homelessness and into housing and indoor spaces. The Community Encampment Response Plan includes safety protocols for individuals living in encampments to support wellness within encampments as well as the surrounding community.
The community-led plan was developed in consultation and collaboration with frontline sector experts and leadership, first responders, City of London staff, and with support from members of the community with lived and living experience. During community engagement opportunities hosted in May, over 200 Londoners joined in-person community engagement sessions to learn more about the plan and give feedback on its proposed safety protocols and guidelines.
"Cities across Canada, as well as smaller communities, are all dealing with the realities of unsheltered homelessness and encampments, and London's Community Encampment Response Plan does not simply acknowledge this harsh reality, but provides a strategy for how we can manage the impacts and support individuals to move indoors through a balance of compassion, community safety, basic needs provisions, and increasing our housing supply." - Mayor Josh Morgan, City of London
"As we make progress toward creating and opening highly supportive housing programs and hubs within London, it’s important that the relationship-building and support work starts before opening those program doors. The Community Encampment Response Plan outlines how this transformational outreach works, and how each intentional engagement with an individual living unsheltered is to eventually support a transition into housing.” – Chantelle McDonald, Director of Service, London Cares, Co-Chair of Encampments Strategy Table
“The Community Encampment Response Plan is rooted in the principle that housing is a fundamental human right and a critical determinant of health, and this is a fundamental shift in how we address homelessness in London. Another key element of the plan is outreach workers who can do the transformative work of connecting individuals within encampments with tailored service pathways to help them move into safe and stable indoor spaces, whether it is a shelter, a hub, or highly supportive housing." – Greg Nash, Director, Complex Urban Health, London InterCommunity Health Centre, Co-Chair of Encampments Strategy Table
“The Community Encampment Response Plan is a key part the overall Whole of Community Response strategy in that it provides a balanced response to the encampment situation in London, recognizing the need to focus on housing solutions while providing interim safe and appropriate measures that support basic human needs until people can exit homelessness.” – Kevin Dickins, Deputy City Manager, Social and Health Development, City of London
“The supports proposed in the Community Plan for Encampments strengthen the Hubs Implementation Plan by helping unsheltered individuals achieve a greater state of health, wellbeing, and dignity than what is available today, so they can better transition into Hubs, which are spaces designed to enable the next steps toward housing. This means individuals can be more ready than ever to continue their journeys toward housing, whether that be in private market, rent-geared-to-income, supportive, highly supportive or otherwise.” – Chuck Lazenby, Executive Director, Unity Project, and Co-Chair of Hubs Implementation Table
About the Health and Homelessness Whole of Community System Response
London, like many cities in Canada, is facing a health and homelessness crisis. In 2023 Londoners came together from organizations and sectors across the city and developed the Health & Homelessness Whole of Community System Response – a new way to support the most marginalized Londoners experiencing homelessness and reduce strain on our health care and judicial systems. The approach being implemented by the Whole of Community System Response is to help Londoners with the highest needs move safely inside; help them get stabilized, wrap around them with supports, connect them to the right type of housing, and help them stay housed.
City Council endorsed the Whole of Community System Response approach in March of 2023. Since then, two hubs have been established, as well as 93 highly supportive housing units, with 50 more units in development, toward a goal of 600 highly supportive housing units within three years. The City’s plans for hubs and housing were shaped by previous community engagement sessions held in summer and fall of 2023.
For more information on the Whole of Community System Response, visit: london.ca