Publication Date
3-31-2025
Document Type
Article
English Abstract
This article analyzes the relationship that unhoused people have to property, both public and private, in Toronto. It argues that in disputes over the use of certain city spaces by unhoused people their interests are subordinate to those of the state and the property- owning public. To advance this argument, this article uses the example of the conflict between unhoused individuals occupying a hotel leased by Toronto at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and the surrounding residents of an affluent neighbourhood. This article concludes by showing that the presence of unhoused people in city spaces not only reveals their precarity in relation to public property but also works to destabilize the dominant private property regime.
Citation Information
Potamianos, Alexandra.
"Precarity, Property, and Homelessness in Toronto."
Journal of Law and Social Policy
37.
(2025): 1-21.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.60082/0829-3929.1488
https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/jlsp/vol37/iss1/2
References
1 Ezra Rosser, "Destabilizing Property" (2015) 48:2 Conn L Rev 397 at 398. Research shows that Toronto is segregated by race and income. As of 2016, low-income neighbourhoods were found to be 31% white, while middle- and high-income neighbourhoods were found to be 61% and 71% white, respectively: see Sandro Contenta, "Toronto is Segregated by Race and Income. And the Numbers are Ugly," Toronto Star (30 September 2018),online: thestar.com/news/gta/2018/09/30/toronto-is-segregated-by-race-and-income-and-the-numbers-are-ugly.html [https://perma.cc/EL3D-MTYM].
2 Rosser, supra note 1 at 406.
3 Rosser, supra note 1 at 402.
4 Sarah Keenan, "Subversive Property: Reshaping Malleable Spaces of Belonging" (2010) 19:4 Soc & Leg Studies423. https://doi.org/10.1177/0964663910372175
5 2008 BCSC 1363 [Adams], aff'd 2009 BCCA 563 [Adams Appeal].
6 Jeff Gray, "A Toronto Hotel for Homeless People Fuels a COVID-19 Culture War in Affluent Yonge and Eglinton Neighbourhood," The Globe and Mail (3 September 2020), online: theglobeandmail.com/canada/toronto/article-a- toronto-hotel-for-homeless-people-fuels-a-covid-19-culture-war-in [https://perma.cc/L2SM-JHXH].
7 Jeremy Waldron, "Homelessness and the Issue of Freedom" (1991) 39:1 UCLA L Rev 295 at 296. https://doi.org/10.1016/0165-0270(91)90109-D
8 Ibid at 311.
9 See Don Mitchell, "The End of Public Space? People's Park, Definitions of the Public, and Democracy" (1995) 85:1 Annals of the Association of American Geographers 108.
10 CB Macpherson, "The Meaning of Property" in CB Macpherson, ed, Property: Mainstream and Critical Positions (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1978) 1 at 2.
11 Ibid at 4.
12 Ibid at 4-5.
13 2005 SCC 62 at para 61 [2952-1366 Québec Inc]. In addition to these two types of property, the Supreme Court of Canada has recognized the legal notion of "Aboriginal title." According to the Court, Aboriginal title is the exclusive right to use and occupy land for a variety of purposes. Importantly, this right is inalienable to third parties and can only be sold, transferred or surrendered to the Crown (see Delgamuukw v British Columbia, [1997] 3 SCR 1010). For a discussion of the relationship between Aboriginal title and private property, see John Borrows, "Aboriginal Title and Private Property" (2015) 71 SCLR 91. See also Angela Cameron, Sari Graben & Val Napoleon, eds, Creating Indigenous Property: Power, Rights, and Relationships (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2020) for consideration of Indigenous laws in property debates. I also acknowledge the settler colonial context in which judicial recognition of only two types of property exist. Such recognition assumes that when European settlers "discovered" the area of land that is now known as Canada, it was terra nullius--that is, the land was empty and belonged to no one. This assumption is not only historically inaccurate but is also premised on a racial hierarchy in which Indigenous peoples are seen as inferior to white Europeans bringing "progress and civilization" to the land, see Cole Harris, "How Did Colonialism Dispossess? Comments from an Edge of Empire" (2004) 94:1 Annals of the Association of American Geographers 165 at 170-71. Indeed, Indigenous peoples have lived in what is now known as Toronto for over eleven thousand years. A historical discussion of Indigenous presence and settler colonialism in Toronto, specifically, can be found in Victoria Freeman, "'Toronto Has No History!' Indigeneity, Settler Colonialism, and Historical Memory in Canada's Largest City" (2010) 38:2 Urban History Review 21. Further, Toronto is in the Dish with One Spoon territory. The Dish with One Spoon is a treaty between the Anishinaabeg Nation and Haudenosaunee Confederacy. The treaty governs the relationship between the two parties, as well as with other Indigenous nations and settlers. For explanation of the treaty from an Anishinaabeg perspective, see Leanne Simpson, "Looking after Gdoo-naaganinaa: Precolonial Nishnaabeg Diplomatic and Treaty Relationships" (2008) 23:2 Wicazo Sa Review 29.
14 This is unlike public property which, according to Professor Anne Bottomley, is often assumed to be regulated by "some form of benevolent public authority," and therefore, is "rarely directly consider[ed]": see Anne Bottomley, "A Trip to the Mall: Revising the Public/Private Divide" in Hilary Lim & Anne Bottomley, eds, Feminist Perspectives on Land Law (Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2007) 65 at 68.
15 Sarah E Hamill, "Private Rights to Public Property: The Evolution of Common Property in Canada" (2012) 58:2 McGill LJ 365 at 370 [Hamill, "Private Rights"]. https://doi.org/10.7202/1017518ar
16 Thomas W Merrill, "Property and the Right to Exclude" (1998) 77:4 Neb L Rev 730 at 731.
17 Larissa Katz, "Exclusion and Exclusivity in Property Law" (2008) 58 UTLJ 275. https://doi.org/10.1353/tlj.0.0006
18 Ibid at 290.
19 Hamill, "Private Rights," supra note 15 at 377.
20 City of Vancouver v Burchill [1932] SCR 620 at 625.
21 [1991] 1 SCR 139 [Committee for the Commonwealth of Canada].
22 Ibid at 167.
23 Hamill, "Private Rights," supra note 15 at 392.
24 Committee for the Commonwealth of Canada, supra note 21 at 158.
25 Ibid at 156.
26 Ibid at 154-55.
27 Ibid at 156-57.
28 Ibid at 157.
29 Ibid at 189.
30 Ibid.
31 Ibid at 203-04.
32 Ibid at 198.
33 Ibid.
34 Ibid at 204.
35 Ibid at 228.
36 Ibid.
37 Ibid at 236.
38 Ibid.
39 Ibid.
40 Richard Moon, "Out of Place: Comment on Committee for the Commonwealth of Canada v Canada" (1993) 38 McGill LJ 204 at 222. See also Committee for the Commonwealth of Canada, supra note 21 at 231, where McLachlin J states that: "There is no historical precedent, whether in England, the United States or this country, for extending freedom of expression to purely private areas merely because they happen to be on government-owned property. Freedom of expression has not traditionally been recognized to apply to such places or means of communication as internal government offices, air traffic control towers, publicly-owned broadcasting facilities, prison cells and judges' private chambers."
41 Ibid.
42 Committee for the Commonwealth of Canada, supra note 21 at 198.
43 Moon, supra note 40 at 208.
44 Ibid.
45 Ibid.
46 Montréal (City) v 2952-1366 Québec Inc., 2005 SCC 62 at para 61.
47 Ibid at para 3.
48 Ibid at para 4.
49 Ibid at para 61.
50 Ibid at para 74.
51 Ibid.
52 Ibid at para 76.
53 Nicholas Blomley, "Precarious Territory: Property Law, Housing, and the Socio-Spatial Order" (2019) 52:1 Antipode 36 at 40 [Blomley, "Precarious Territory"]. See also Nicholas Blomley, Alexandra Flynn & Marie-Eve Sylvestre, "Governing the Belongings of the Precariously Housed: A Critical Legal Geography" (2020) 16 Annual Rev L & Soc Science 165. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12578
54 Blomley, "Precarious Territory," supra note 53 at 39.
55 Ibid.
56 Waldron, supra note 7.
57 Jane B Baron, "Property and No Property" (2005) 42:5 Hous L Rev 1424.
58 Mark L Roark, "Under-Propertied Persons" (2017) 28:1 Cornell JL & Pub Pol'y 1. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2918598
59 Nicholas Blomley, "Homelessness, Rights, and the Delusions of Property," (2009) 30:6 Urban Geography 577 at 581 [Blomley, "Delusions of Property"]. https://doi.org/10.2747/0272-3638.30.6.577
60 Samira Kawash, "The Homeless Body" (1998) 10:2 Public Culture 319 at 326. https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-10-2-319
61 Adams, supra note 5 at para 237. On appeal, the British Columbia Court of Appeal varied the trial judge's declaration to state that: "Sections 14(1)(d) and 16(1) of the Parks Regulation Bylaw No. 07-059 are inoperative insofar and only insofar as they apply to prevent homeless people from erecting temporary overnight shelter in parks when the number of homeless people exceeds the number of available shelter beds in the City of Victoria" (see Adams Appeal at para 166).
62 Scott McAlpine, "More Than Wishful Thinking: Recent Developments in Recognizing the Right to Housing Under s 7 of the Charter" (2017) 38 Windsor Rev Legal Soc Issues 1 at 11. Since the decision in Adams, several encampment challenges have been launched in British Columbia: see e.g., Johnston v Victoria (City), 2010 BCSC 1707; Abbotsford v Shantz, 2015 BCSC 1909; and British Columbia v Adamson, 2016 BCSC 1245. According to Margot Young, it is no surprise that these social justice-oriented claims have come out of British Columbia, as "British Columbia is a province in which the major social justice challenges of Canada are clearly apparent -particularly in that province's two major cities. Both Vancouver and Victoria are marked by disparities of income and wealth, issues of inadequate and unaffordable housing, the impact of colonization on Indigenous peoples, and the presence of ill-health, poverty, homelessness, and marginalization in a country of tremendous affluence. These cities have active communities of civil society groups strategizing about how to make use of the Constitution to achieve social justice". See Margot Young, "Sleeping Rough and Shooting Up: Taking British Columbia's Urban Justice Issues to Court" in Martha Jackman & Bruce Porter, eds, Advancing Social Rights in Canada (Toronto: Irwin Law, 2014) 413 at 415.
63 Adams, supra note 5 at para 191.
64 Ibid at para 132.
65 Sarah E Hamill, "Private Property Rights and Public Responsibility: Leaving Room for the Homeless" (2011) 30 Windsor Rev Legal Soc Issues 91 at 96 [Hamill, "Private Property Rights"].
66 Ibid at 98.
67 2011 ONSC 6862 [Batty].
68 Ibid at para 91.
69 Hamill, "Private Rights," supra note 15 at 381.
70 Ibid at 382-83.
71 Ibid at 382.
72 Black et al v City of Toronto, 2020 ONSC 6398 [Black].
73 Ibid at para 150. For a criticism of the application of the RJR-MacDonald test in encampment cases, see Stepan Wood, "When Should Publicly Owned Land Be Considered Private in Homeless Encampment Cases? A Critique of Recent Developments in BC" (2023) 36 J L & Soc Pol'y 64, and Stepan Wood, "What is the Test for Interlocutory Injunctions Affecting Homeless Encampments? A Critique of Vancouver Fraser Port Authority v Brett and Associated Case Law," Centre for Law & the Environment Working Paper No 3/2022 (September 2022), online: https://allard.ubc.ca/cle [https://perma.cc/9Y8H-T248].
74 Ibid at para 143. See similar decision in Poff v City of Hamilton, 2021 ONSC 7224.
75 Ibid at para 108.
76 Ibid, citing Batty, supra note 67 at para 95.
77 Ibid at para 143.
78 Adams, supra note 5 at para 132.
79 Justice Valente's decision in The Regional Municipality of Waterloo v Persons Unknown, 2023 ONSC 670 [Persons Unknown] seems to be an exception to this proposition. In Persons Unknown, an encampment was erected on a vacant lot owned by the municipality. Justice Valente found that the municipality did not have enough accessible shelter space and, as such, violated section 7 of the Charter by carrying out encampment evictions. According to Justice Valente, "accessible" shelter space is not simply a sufficient number of shelter spaces, but spaces that meet the "diverse needs" of the unhoused population (at para 93). In my view, Justice Valente's decision places a higher burden on municipalities to justify encampment evictions but does not substantially alter the relationship that homeless people have to property: if there is sufficient accessible shelter space, then the municipality could, as the property owner, evict encampment residents. See similar holdings in decisions from British Columbia: Prince George (City) v Stewart, 2021 BCSC 2089 and Prince George (City) v Johnny, 2022 BCSC 282.
80 City of Toronto, "Street Needs Assessment 2021" (2021) at 5, online (pdf): City of Toronto toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2021/ec/bgrd/backgroundfile-171729.pdf [https://perma.cc/S8J9-LA76]. Prior to the pandemic, the City estimated in 2018 that 8,715 people experience homelessness, see City of Toronto, "Street Needs Assessment 2018" (2018) at 6, online (pdf): City of Toronto toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/99be-2018-SNA-Results-Report.pdf. The City's Street Needs Assessment defines homelessness as: "Any individual who on the night of April 21, 2021, was sleeping outdoors or staying in City- administered emergency/transitional shelters and shelter motels/hotels (including COVID-19 response sites and isolation/recovery programs), 24-hour respite sites (including 24-hour women's drop-ins) as well as provincially-administered Violence Against Women shelters, individuals in health, crisis or treatment (including post-treatment) facilities identified as homeless, as well as individuals in correctional facilities who listed their previous residence as 'no fixed address' or a known shelter location". Importantly, "[t]his definition of homelessness excludes the "hidden" homeless (e.g., staying temporarily with family or friends)" experienced by people across the City (at 60) and does not capture all elements of the definition of Indigenous homelessness as set out in Jesse Thistle, Indigenous Definition of Homelessness in Canada (Toronto: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness Press, 2017). As such, the Assessment likely underestimates the number of people experiencing homelessness in Toronto.
81 City of Toronto, News Release, "City of Toronto 2020-2021 Winter Plan for People Experiencing Homelessness" (6 October 2020), online: toronto.ca/news/city-of-toronto-2020-2021-winter-plan-for-people-experiencing-homelessness [https://perma.cc/8FJU-JE4C].
82 Gray, supra note 7.
83 Ibid.
84 City of Toronto, "Community Engagement for Roehampton Residence," online: https://www.toronto.ca/news/update-on-city-of-toronto-temporary-housing-programs-in-midtown/ [City of Toronto, "Community Engagement"]. Note that the site was closed in August 2023: Jaye Robinson, "Update: Temporary Shelter at 808 Mount Pleasant Road," https://www.jayerobinson.ca/blog/2023/7/6/update-temporary-shelter-at-808-mount-pleasant-road.
85 Ibid; Bryann Aguilar, "Police Search For Three Suspects After Midtown Shelter Resident Stabbed," CP24 News (23 August 2020), online: cp24.com/news/police-search-for-three-suspects-after-midtown-shelter-resident-stabbed-1.5076071 [https://perma.cc/H39Y-TXCH].
86 Donovan Vincent, "Neighbours in Yonge and Eglinton Area at Odds Over New Homeless Shelters," Toronto Star (15 August 2020), online: thestar.com/news/gta/2020/08/15/neighbours-in-yonge-and-eglinton-area-at-odds-over- new-homeless-shelters.htm [https://perma.cc/PYP6-X945].
87 Ibid; Jake Kivanc, "Protestors Clash Over Toronto Homeless Housing Project Amid Concerns of Safety," CityNews (15 August 2020), online: toronto.citynews.ca/2020/08/15/dueling-protests-planned-outside-of-midtown-shelters/ [https://perma.cc/GV3V-VL68].
88 Kivanc, supra note 87.
89 Vincent, supra note 86; Kevin Connor, "'Suspicious Death' Latest Black Eye for Hotel Housing Homeless During COVID," Toronto Sun (5 December 2020), online: torontosun.com/news/local-news/suspicious-death-latest-black-eye-for-hotel-housing-homeless-during-covid [https://perma.cc/CZY6-PXVU].
90 Aguilar, supra note 85.
91 Gray, supra note 6.
92 Joanna Lavoie, "Group Pushes to 'Restore Safety' After Two Shelters Open in Midtown Toronto," Toronto.com (28 August 2020), online: toronto.com/news-story/10149035-group-pushes-to-restore-safety-after-two-shelters-open-in-midtown-toronto/ [https://perma.cc/2KA5-TPXA].
93 CBC News, "'Like We're Living in a Nightmare': Midtown Toronto Residents Fed Up With Crime, Vandalism Near Shelters," CBC News (13 August 2020), online: cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/midtown-homeless-shelters- covid-19-1.5678552 [https://perma.cc/HHD8-57XX].
94 For further discussion of those experiencing homelessness as "outsiders," see Don Mitchell, "The Annihilation of Space by Law: The Roots and Implications of Anti-Homeless Laws in the United States" (1997) 29:3 Antipode 303; Mark L Roark, "Homelessness at the Cathedral" (2015) 80:1 Mo L Rev 55 at 81; Samira Kawash, "The Homeless Body" (1998) 10:2 Public Culture 319; Terry Skolnik, "The Punitive Impact of Physical Distancing Laws on Homeless People" in Colleen Flood et al, eds, Vulnerable: The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19 (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2020); Forrest Stuart, "From 'Rabble Management' to 'Recovery Management': Policing Homelessness in Marginal Urban Space" (2014) 51:9 Urban Studies 1909; Nicholas Blomley, "Property and the Landscapes of Gentrification" in Unsettling the City: Urban Land and the Politics of Property (New York: Routledge, 2004) 29 at 31. Those experiencing homelessness are considered "outsiders" not only because they do not own property and are poor, but also because they are more likely to be Indigenous or racialized. Indigenous people and racialized people are over represented among the people experiencing homelessness in Toronto. Indigenous people are estimated to represent 1 to 2.5% of Toronto's population and 15% of the total number of people experiencing homelessness. Racialized people are estimated to represent 60% of Toronto's total number of people experiencing homelessness with 31% identifying as Black (see "Street Needs Assessment 2021," supra note 80 at 22-23, 25).
95 Gray, supra note 6.
96 Black, supra note 72 (Affidavit, Zoë Dodd at 7) [Dodd Affidavit]. According to Justice Schabas' decision in Black, the City has since altered the no-guest policy to allow "residents to enter each other's rooms" (at para 114).
97 City of Toronto, "Community Engagement," supra note 84.
98 Joanna Lavoie, "Toronto Steps Up Security, Supports After Stabbing Outside Roehampton Shelter," Toronto.com (24 August 2020), online: toronto.com/news-story/10145284-toronto-steps-up-security-supports-after-stabbing-outside-roehampton-shelter/ [https://perma.cc/7DHY-6FG6].
99 Ibid. Police have and continue to play a key role in protection of property, disproportionately targeting Black and Indigenous people and other poor people to do so: see Rinaldo Walcott, On Property (Windsor, ON: Biblioasis, 2021). 100 Christopher Essert, "Property and Homelessness" (2016) 44:4 Philosophy & Public Affairs 266 at 278. https://doi.org/10.1111/papa.12080
100 Christopher Essert, "Property and Homelessness" (2016) 44:4 Philosophy & Public Affairs 266 at 278. https://doi.org/10.1111/papa.12080
101 Ibid at 279, 294.
102 UNHRC, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing as a Component of the Right to an Adequate Standard of Living, and on the Right to Non-Discrimination in this Context, UNGAOR, 34th Sess, UN Doc A/HRC/34/51 (18 January 2017) at 3 ["Report of the Special Rapporteur"].
103 Martine August, "The Financialization of Housing in Canada: A Summary Report for the Office of the Federal Housing Advocate" (2022) at 12-13, online (pdf): publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2023/ccdp-chrc/HR34- 7-2022-eng.pdf; Priya S Gupta, "The Entwined Futures of Financialisation and Cities" (2019) 43:4 Cambridge Journal of Economics 1123 at 1133. https://doi.org/10.1093/cje/bez028
104 See Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "The Right to Adequate Housing," FactSheet No.1/Rev.1 (2014) at 8, online (pdf): ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/FS21_rev_1_Housing_en.pdf [https://perma.cc/9H5S-A249] ["The Right to Adequate Housing"], explaining that: "Given the broader protection afforded by the right to adequate housing, a sole focus on property rights might in fact lead to violations of the right to adequate housing, for instance, by forcibly evicting slum- dwellers residing on private property".
105 Keenan, supra note 4 at 426.
106 Ibid at 429.
107 Ibid.
108 Ibid at 438.
109 Ibid at 437.
110 ESN describes itself as "an ad-hoc, volunteer-run network supporting people living in encampments," which serves six locations in Toronto: Parkdale, Trinity Bellwoods, Scadding Court, Moss Park, Little Norway Park, and Cherry Beach. Through its volunteers, the network provides water, tents, ice, fire safety equipment, socks, sleeping bags, and harm reduction kits, among other basic necessities to encampment residents: see Joanna Lavoie, "'We're Just Literally Trying to Take Care of People': Encampment Support Network Provides Supplies and Compassion to Homeless People Camped Out in Toronto," Toronto Star (22 September 2021), online: thestar.com/news/gta/2020/09/22/were-just-literally-trying-to-take-care-of-people-encampment-support-network-provides-supplies-and-compassion-to- homeless-people-camped-out-in-toronto.html [https://perma.cc/M5AL-ZSG8]. See also ESN's website: encampmentsupportnetwork.com/ [https://perma.cc/3TLZ-94V6]. Note that as of 2022 ESN's broader network dissolved, though some neighborhood-based committees remained intact: see e.g., ESN Parkdale, "Who We Are," https://www.esnparkdale.com/.
111 Leilani Farha & Kaitlin Schwan, A National Protocol for Homeless Encampments in Canada (UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing, 2020), online (pdf):make-the-shift.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/A- National-Protocol-for-Homeless-Encampments-in-Canada.pdf [https://perma.cc/A6EZ-SUGY].
112 Ibid at 15-31.
113 In the city of Victoria's Beacon Hill Park encampment, for example, a community-built shower was installed, along with a community care tent to provide warmth, food, water, and medication to encampment residents. Bylaw officers dismantled the showers and ordered the community care tent to be removed for being inside the park without a permit. Organizers later obtained a permit and set up the tent just outside of the park: see Emily Fagan, "Victoria Shower Struggle: Police Raid Volunteer Effort for Homeless," The Tyee (21 November 2020), online: thetyee.ca/News/2020/11/21/Victoria-Shower-Struggle/; Rebecca Lawrence, "Beacon Hill Care Tent Pops Up On Cook Street After Obtaining a Legal Permit," CHEK News (25 January 2021), online: cheknews.ca/beaconhill-care-tent-pops-up-on-cook-street-after-obtaining-a-legal-permit-737268/ [https://perma.cc/49WG-EALL].
114 See Priya S Gupta, "The American Dream, Deferred: Contextualizing Property After the Foreclosure Crisis" (2014) 73:2 Md L Rev 523, for a discussion of how the expansion of home ownership to low-income and minority groups, through the promotion of new, risky mortgage instruments by the federal government in the United States, "triggered and exacerbated" the foreclosure crisis (at 543).
115 The Right to Adequate Housing, supra note 104 at 7 [emphasis in original].
116 Ibid at 7-8.
117 See e.g., Canadian Municipal Working Group, "Right to Home: A Municipal Call to Action" (2020), online (pdf): The Shift make-the-shift.org/righttohome/ [https://perma.cc/TY4Y-FSA9] and a letter signed by various groups in Toronto (including ESN) with "Demands for Immediate Action to Address COVID-related Risks and Harms for People Experiencing Homelessness," online: docs.google.com/document/d/1iGR5k4epEX3vu8Tby3M9x0RAQcyENJKA99rdFOQALK w/edit [https://perma.cc/J79L-A7DG]. See similar arguments being made by Amar Bhatia, Alexandra Flynn & Estair Van Wagner, "The Saturday Debate: Should Tent Encampments Be Left Alone?", Toronto Star (12 December 2020), online: thestar.com/opinion/contributors/the-saturday-debate/2020/12/12/the-saturday-debate-should-tent- encampments-be-left-alone.html [https://perma.cc/SP9H-P67V]; Yusra Uzair, "The Unhoused Are 5 Times More Likely to Die Within 21 Days of a Positive COVID-19 Test. How Toronto is Failing People Living Outside in the Cold," Toronto Star (17 February 2021), online: thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2021/02/17/the-unhoused-are-5-times-more-likely-to-die-within-21-days-of-a-positive-covid-19-test-how-toronto-is-failing-people-living-outside-in-the-cold.html [https://perma.cc/N25P-DA45]; Don Mitchell, "Tent Cities: Interstitial Spaces of Survival" in Andrea Mubi Brighenti, ed, Urban Interstices: The Aesthetics and the Politics of the In-between (New York: Routledge, 2016) 65 at 81-82. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315548807-3