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Homeless encampments: connecting public health and human rights
The COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating longstanding issues related to homelessness, including lack of affordable housing, unemployment, poverty, wealth inequality, and ongoing impacts of colonization. Homelessness is often accompanied by narratives rooted in individual blame, criminalization, and rei...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Springer International Publishing
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8562929/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34729717 http://dx.doi.org/10.17269/s41997-021-00581-w |
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author | Olson, Nicholas Pauly, Bernadette |
author_facet | Olson, Nicholas Pauly, Bernadette |
author_sort | Olson, Nicholas |
collection | PubMed |
description | The COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating longstanding issues related to homelessness, including lack of affordable housing, unemployment, poverty, wealth inequality, and ongoing impacts of colonization. Homelessness is often accompanied by narratives rooted in individual blame, criminalization, and reinforcement of substance use and mental health-related stigma. Visible homelessness, in the form of encampments, is a manifestation of government policy failures that neglect to uphold the human right to housing, and demonstrate eroding investments in affordable housing, income and systemic supports. Encampments make visible that some in our community lack basic determinants of health such as food, water, sanitation, safety, and the right to self-determination. In order for public health to effectively and equitably promote health and enact commitments to social justice, we argue that public health must adopt a human rights approach to housing and to homeless encampments. Embracing a human rights perspective means public health would advocate first and foremost for adequate housing and other resources rooted in self-determination of encampment residents. In the absence of housing, public health would uphold human rights through the provision of public health resources and prohibition on evictions of encampments until adequate housing is available. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8562929 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Springer International Publishing |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-85629292021-11-03 Homeless encampments: connecting public health and human rights Olson, Nicholas Pauly, Bernadette Can J Public Health Special Section on COVID-19: Commentary The COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating longstanding issues related to homelessness, including lack of affordable housing, unemployment, poverty, wealth inequality, and ongoing impacts of colonization. Homelessness is often accompanied by narratives rooted in individual blame, criminalization, and reinforcement of substance use and mental health-related stigma. Visible homelessness, in the form of encampments, is a manifestation of government policy failures that neglect to uphold the human right to housing, and demonstrate eroding investments in affordable housing, income and systemic supports. Encampments make visible that some in our community lack basic determinants of health such as food, water, sanitation, safety, and the right to self-determination. In order for public health to effectively and equitably promote health and enact commitments to social justice, we argue that public health must adopt a human rights approach to housing and to homeless encampments. Embracing a human rights perspective means public health would advocate first and foremost for adequate housing and other resources rooted in self-determination of encampment residents. In the absence of housing, public health would uphold human rights through the provision of public health resources and prohibition on evictions of encampments until adequate housing is available. Springer International Publishing 2021-11-02 /pmc/articles/PMC8562929/ /pubmed/34729717 http://dx.doi.org/10.17269/s41997-021-00581-w Text en © The Author(s) under exclusive license to The Canadian Public Health Association 2021 |
spellingShingle | Special Section on COVID-19: Commentary Olson, Nicholas Pauly, Bernadette Homeless encampments: connecting public health and human rights |
title | Homeless encampments: connecting public health and human rights |
title_full | Homeless encampments: connecting public health and human rights |
title_fullStr | Homeless encampments: connecting public health and human rights |
title_full_unstemmed | Homeless encampments: connecting public health and human rights |
title_short | Homeless encampments: connecting public health and human rights |
title_sort | homeless encampments: connecting public health and human rights |
topic | Special Section on COVID-19: Commentary |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8562929/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34729717 http://dx.doi.org/10.17269/s41997-021-00581-w |
work_keys_str_mv | AT olsonnicholas homelessencampmentsconnectingpublichealthandhumanrights AT paulybernadette homelessencampmentsconnectingpublichealthandhumanrights |