The provincial government has announced that it won't bring into force changes designed to create standards for municipalities seeking legal injunctions against homeless camps.
The move appears to be a climb-down by the provincial government, but also points to the various sources of conflict that exist around homeless camps.
Bill 45 鈥� a collection of various amendments 鈥� establishes what the province calls "criteria" for local governments seeking court injunctions against homeless camps through changes to the Vancouver Charter and the Community Charter.
When government tabled the bill in the fall session of 2023, it drew opposition from across the political spectrum for different reasons, with the central point of contention being the definition of "reasonably available shelter space." It is defined as a "staffed place where an individual may stay overnight, and have access, either at, or nearby the shelter to a bathroom, a shower, and one meal per day."
The Union of British Columbian Municipalities asked government to withdraw the bill because it considered it to be "highly unlikely that any community" has "sufficient shelter space" to meet the test of "reasonably available shelter space" for a successful court injunction against homeless camps.
UBCM believed that the amendments would have made it impossible to seek legal actions against homeless camps.
"A likely unintended consequence of the amendment is that unhoused persons will be able to set up shelter in parks, sports fields, city halls, and sidewalks, knowing that local governments will not be granted an injunction for decampment," UBCM said at the time
UBCM was not the only organization that criticized the proposed amendments.
The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association had criticized the amendments because it set the legal bar too low.
"The bill undermines the human rights of those made most vulnerable by the current model of housing and shelter provision," it said in a statement back in November. "It reinforces the stigma-based, punitive approach that local and other governments have taken to tent cities."
Other organizations from housing advocates to First Nations to law enforcement also weighed in on the proposed changes.
Bill 45 passed in the fall of 2023, but government also announced at the time that it would not implement the proposed changes to the homeless camp provisions for additional consultations. But B.C.'s Housing Ministry informed stakeholders on July 10 that government won't go forward with the changes for now.
UBCM president Trish Mandewo said her organization welcomes government's decision because the legislation would have made it impossible for municipalities to get injunctions against homeless camps.
"We see it as a plus, because it allows the province to actually go back and pay attention to the needs that are needed, which are shelter spaces," she said. "We need more supportive housing, we need more complex care facilities. We need affordable housing and outreach services to help address homelessness through B.C. This bill was not going to do that."
The government's announcement comes about three months before the next provincial election.
B.C.'s Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon was asked whether the government was trying to avoid the potential political fall out from a protracted conflict. He said that had nothing to do with it.
"This was a case where just could not get any movement from both sides of the argument," he said. "If we could find some movement from both sides, if we would have felt that there was some light at the end of the tunnel, we would have kept working on this."
But some voices including UBCM did not want to move because they did not think the bill would have given them the necessary flexibility, Kahlon added.
"(Then) we hear from housing advocates who say there is way too much flexibility and neither side wants to move," he said. "We were trying to address a challenge that local governments are going to be facing when they go to court and if they don't see the value in having more clarity on law for them to be able to take action on encampments in their communities, then we will have to leave it to the courts to make those decisions."
Kahlon was referring to often conflicting court rulings from the United States around homeless camps. The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that cities can ban people from sleeping and camping, a decision with likely far reaching, but not yet fully known consequences.
Looming behind this issue is the larger question of who bears responsibility for providing the necessary resources toward dealing with homeless encampments.
UBCM said in its submission in the fall that the "provision of shelter is the responsibility and jurisdiction of the provincial government," a point Mandewo reiterated, when asked how much it would cost municipalities to provide adequate shelter space.
"So I'm going to push back say and local governments do not provide shelters," she said. "That's not our role. That's a provincial (role). We are here to help with the zoning, some local governments have even provided land. Let's work on this together. But when it comes to actual housing, that's a provincial mandate."
Kahlon said the province has a role to play when it "comes to having shelters available" but "local government hold all the tools."
Ultimately, they decide where the shelters will be, he added. "So I say to any local government that wants to open a shelter and wants to open up supportive housing, 'tell us where.' We have been trying since I have been the housing minister with communities around the province."
Some of those efforts have been successful, Kahlon said, pointing to 琉璃神社, where some 180 so-called 'tiny homes' recently opened.
"Where there is political will, anything is possible," he said. "In some communities, we are sitting there six months to year, trying to agree on a location and we are not able to do that."
Kahlon though also acknowledged that local officials face their own pressures.
"I know it's frustrating for local government officials as well, because every time they come up with a location, they get push back from the people in the community."
