Ombudsman Toronto Report: Investigation into the City's Processes for Clearing Encampments in 2021

2. The City should ensure that, if it decides it is necessary to clear an encampment, it prioritizes the needs of those living in the encampment, including providing vital social services to help with the transition. 3. The City should create a detailed plan outlining how the City will support access to physical and mental health services for those living in encampments. 4. The City should create a strategy for engaging with people living in encampments, including specific strategies for Indigenous communities, as well as Black, racialized, and equity-deserving groups. These strategies should include a clear definition of engagement. They should also seek and incorporate feedback from people living in encampments. 5. The City should proactively work to repair its relationships with community workers for the benefit of those living in encampments. 6. The City should provide the public with clear information about its response to encampments, including, but not limited to, the clearing process, the roles of City staff involved, how much notice will be provided, and the supports and services available to those living in encampments. If the City changes its mind about a clearing's compliance date, it should share that information with the people living in the encampment before the date listed on the Trespass Notice. If the City still plans to clear the encampment, it should inform those living in the encampment of the new date as soon as possible. 7. The City should communicate with encampment residents in clear, accessible, and plain language, and provide a dedicated resource for those living in encampments to ask questions or raise concerns with the City. 8. The City should use multiple communications channels and methods to ensure people living in encampments are informed in a timely way. 9. The City should finalize its review of the Dufferin Grove Park initiative and make it public as soon as possible, in order to make the initiative permanent. 2. City Council endorse the recommendations in the Ombudsman's report and, in so doing, confirm its support for the Dufferin Grove approach to dealing with encampments. 3. City Council commit to working with those who reside in encampments using human rights and culturally appropriate responses. 4. City Council ensure that encampment residents are provided safe indoor space proactively by City Staff. 5. City Council endorse the goal of no encampments in the City of Toronto. 6. City Council direct the appropriate City staff to report back to City Council in the fourth quarter of 2023 on: a. a revised mandate and strategic plan to guide the City's encampment response that is aligned with both the updated Encampment Interdepartmental Protocol and the realization of the progressive right to housing as outlined in the Toronto Housing Charter; b. the composition, leadership and mandate of the inter-divisional Encampment Working Group; c. clear procedures required in advance of any issuing of notices of eviction; d. minimum time threshold established between an issuing of a notice of eviction and associated procedures to move forward with a clearing; and e. policy grounds to authorize any encampment clearings. 7. City Council direct the City Solicitor to report in the fourth quarter of 2023 on the impact of the Ontario Superior Court finding that the action of the Region of Kitchener-Waterloo to evict an encampment violated Section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. 8. City Council request the Provincial Government to develop a regional approach to homelessness in the Greater Toronto Area including ensuring that local governments provide adequate shelter space for their residents. 9. City Council request the Federal and Provincial Governments to increase support for pathways out of homelessness.