Rights that already exist

Advocacy works better when it names the law, not only the moral claim.

Ontario Human Rights Code

Housing is a protected social area. Disability, family status, receipt of public assistance, race, and gender identity require accommodation to the point of undue hardship.

Residential Tenancies Act

Eviction is a legal process, not a landlord preference. N4/L1 timelines, Board orders, and illegal lockouts are distinct problems — treat them as such.

Special Priority Policy

SPP can move a VAW survivor up a community-housing waitlist. It is not a new unit. Combine SPP with a Housing First vacancy ask.

National Housing Strategy Act

Federal law recognizes housing as a human right and requires a progressive-realization framework. Use it in letters to the Prime Minister and MPs.

Charter s.7 / s.15

Encampment and shelter litigation continues to evolve. Do not give legal advice from this page; send people to a clinic.

Indigenous housing

ISHP is a distinct provincial base program. Letters should not fold Indigenous housing into a generic HPP paragraph.

Consent and treatment

Medical treatment requires consent except in narrow, reviewable emergencies. Homelessness is not a substitute for that legal threshold. Conditioning a home on treatment conflicts with Housing First and with Code protections for disability.

Canada Disability Benefit

A federal income program that does not, at current scale, meet the right-to-housing duty when stacked with ODSP clawbacks and frozen shelter maximums. Say that plainly in letters to MPs.

This is public information, not legal advice. Legal Aid Ontario and local clinics make the call on a file.