A worsening crisis in homelessness in B.C. has resulted in an increase in the number of homeless encampments on public lands. Encampments can be a source of shelter, support, and safety among unhoused people. While B.C.’s courts have recognized that it is unconstitutional to evict people seeking shelter on publicly-owned lands overnight if they cannot be accommodated in shelters, people experiencing homelessness will often lack daytime shelter or somewhere to store their belongings. The result is “a vicious cycle of continual displacement” in which unhoused people are often forced to pack up and move daily.

“Rush to Judgement”, a new report from the Centre for Law and the Environment and Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia presents findings from a comprehensive review of reported court decisions on injunctions against homeless encampments on publicly-owned lands in B.C. The report focuses on interlocutory and final injunctions from 2000 to 2022. Notably, a majority of decisions during this period were interlocutory injunctions (20 out of 24). The report underscores that, in most cases, an interlocutory injunction will mark the end of a case since it usually means that the government has achieved its goal of legally evicting encampment residents.

The report reveals that:

• There is an 85% success rate for applications for interlocutory injunctions against homeless encampments in B.C.
• Only about 25% of applications for final injunctions are successful
• In some cases, interlocutory decisions apply a relaxed legal test that “minimizes or ignores the issues of irreparable harm and balance of convenience”

The full report, Rush to Judgement: A Critical Survey of Court Injunctions Against Homeless Encampments in BC, 2000-2022 is available online here: https://allard.ubc.ca/sites/default/files/2023-10/Rush%20to%20Judgment%20Report%20Oct%202023.pdf.