WHEREAS there exist systemic housing issues and crises affecting Canada, and the City of Cambridge, which are increasingly evident in the form of homeless encampments in our community;
WHEREAS municipalities such as the City of Cambridge are on the frontlines of the housing and homelessness crisis, yet do not possess the financial and jurisdictional powers and resources to fully address the housing and homelessness crisis;
WHEREAS housing has been declared by the United Nations, the Government of Canada, and courts across the country as a human right, as laid out in Canada’s National Housing Strategy Act, requiring municipalities to respond to persons without housing and/or living in homeless encampments through a human-rights approach that respects, upholds, and prioritizes their human rights;
WHEREAS climatic change is increasing the frequency of dangerous storms, polar vortexes, blizzards, winds, precipitation, floods, heat warnings, heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, and much else that is captured in the phrase or driven by an "extreme weather event";
WHEREAS the forced removal of unhoused persons from encampments during extreme weather events may violate a citizen’s right to adequate housing; unwillingly remove citizens from their familiar space of shelter or refuge where they manage and mitigate extreme weather; may dispossess citizens of their belongings that help to manage and mitigate extreme weather; and may potentially disconnect vulnerable persons from established networks of support and outreach services;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that Council direct staff to report back in the 4th quarter of 2025 on prevention of forced removals of unhoused persons during extreme weather events upon the issuance of a warning, an alert, or during the occurrence of, an extreme weather event as determined by Environment and Climate Change Canada;
AND THAT the City Clerk notify the Region of Waterloo, the Waterloo Regional Police Service (WRPS), and outreach agencies working in partnership with the city and region, of this direction.