The Safer Municipalities Act introduces new penalties that criminalize people living in poverty and experiencing housing instability. It targets people with mental health challenges and those who use substances, while failing to offer the support proven to save lives and reduce harm.
We believe that true public safety comes from housing, dignity, and income security. Criminalization does not solve systemic injustice. It makes it harder for people to feel safe, supported, or connected to their communities.
That is why CAWI, in partnership with local organizations, is sending a letter to Mayor Mark Sutcliffe urging him to speak out against Bill 6 and take action at the municipal level to protect the rights, dignity, and safety of all Ottawa residents.
We are calling for leadership that centers care and equity. Municipal governments have the power to respond with harm reduction, anti-displacement policies, and a human rights approach to housing.
You can take action with us.
- Read, download, and share our open letter here: Collective Letter Against Bill 6 – June 10, 2025
- Email the letter to Mayor Sutcliffe
- Send your message to Mark.Sutcliffe@ottawa.ca
- Use the subject line: Re: Bill 6 and the Rights of Unhoused Residents
- You can copy the letter into the email or attach it as a PDF
- Add your own message if you wish
- Mail a printed copy
- Address it to:
Mayor Mark Sutcliffe
City of Ottawa
110 Laurier Avenue West
Ottawa, ON K1P 1J1
- You may wish to include a handwritten message as well
This is a crucial moment. Bill 6 asks cities to choose: will we uphold human rights, or enable more punishment and displacement? Together, let’s mobilize for a city that cares for all.
You can also read the letter below:
June 10, 2025
Dear Mayor Sutcliffe,
In the past few days, Bill 6, the Safer Municipalities Act, received Royal Assent at the Ontario Legislature. Bill 6 introduces legislation that criminalizes individuals living in poverty and experiencing housing instability. The Bill penalizes people living with mental health challenges and addictions without providing the support proven to save lives and reduce harm. We are writing to urge you to take decisive action to protect the rights, dignity, and safety of our unhoused neighbors in Ottawa.
Through sustained investments in harm reduction services, anti-displacement policies, and a rights-based approach to encampments, you can enact change at the municipal level, despite the constraints imposed by the province. Recent steps toward an anti-renovictions by-law reflects the importance of municipal action to prevent displacement. Choosing to respond to Bill 6 with progressive housing policy and supportive mental health programs instead of reactive and punitive measures is how we begin to create the conditions for true public safety.
We write as a collective voice of organizations and residents to affirm the following: all are welcome in public spaces. Living in extreme poverty is a failure of a system that continues to perpetuate colonialism, racial inequity and favours profit over people’s rights. Homelessness is not a crime.
We implore you at this moment to stand with our most vulnerable residents and amplify our unified voice. Bill 6, the Safer Municipalities Act, is a provincial act with severe municipal consequences. Criminalizing the poverty visible outside City Hall will not make it disappear. Confront injustice and make our municipality safer by acting with care and empathy to affect systemic change.
We urge you to act with courage and integrity by:
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Speaking out publicly against Bill 6 and other similar bills being introduced at the provincial legislature that seek to criminalize poverty.
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Advocating for evidence-based housing policies that prevent displacement and meet the needs of unhoused individuals; provincial funding commitments for affordable housing are only one lever for change — harm reduction services and enacting a human rights-based approach that affirms the right to shelter, including for those in encampments – are municipal commitments.
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Prioritizing in policy and decision-making the lived experience of individuals experiencing homelessness and addictions and the work of organizations stewarding harm reduction.
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Expediting housing policies to prevent displacement such as the anti-renoviction by-law.
Since 2018, homelessness in Ottawa has increased by 78.5%. Enforcement and criminalization as a solution will fundamentally not solve systemic injustice.
Housing insecurity is driven by rapidly rising rents, soaring costs of living, and stagnant income supports. In Ottawa, between 2022 and 2023, average rent prices increased by 13%. Meanwhile, minimum wage only increased by 3.3%. Further, government-funded income supports such as Ontario Works, Ontario Disability Support Program, Old Age Security, and the Guaranteed Income Supplement have seen little or no meaningful increases in recent years. The outcome is that over a third of Ottawa renters are paying more than what is deemed affordable according to the CMHC definition. Bill 6 will not solve this, but instead punish people for being poor.
These economic pressures fall hardest on racialized people, women, and gender-expansive individuals, who are disproportionately impacted by poverty and housing insecurity. The feminization of poverty, gender-based violence, and intimate partner violence are direct pathways into homelessness.
Refugees, immigrants, and Indigenous people also face systemic housing barriers rooted in colonialism and systemic inequities. Ottawa’s 2024 Point-in-Time Count reveals that 42% of unhoused individuals are immigrants, refugees, or refugee claimants. These numbers reflect a systemic failure to support newcomers. Many arrive in Canada in search of safety, dignity and opportunity, but are met with long waitlists, unaffordable housing markets, employment barriers, and under-resourced settlement support.
Nearly 20% of unhoused people in Ottawa are Indigenous. This is a devastating and ongoing outcome of colonial displacement. Housing policy at every level of government has consistently failed Indigenous communities. And yet, despite these evidence-based realities, the Province continues to rely on punitive tools. We emphasize that criminalization has never and will never address colonial harms.
We are at a crossroads. Bill 6 asks cities to choose between upholding human rights or enabling a policy of displacement and criminalization. We ask you to act by prioritizing the dignity and rights of all members of our community.
Sincerely,
The City for All Women Initiative (CAWI)
Endorsing Organizations:
Canadian Center For Women’s Empowerment
Centertown Community Health Center
Horizon Ottawa
Kind Space
Ottawa Community Food Partnership
Parkdale Food Centre
Interval House of Ottawa
Ottawa Acorn
613-819 Black Hub
OCTEVAW
Project Agape
Counseling and Family Services Ottawa
Lanark County Interval House
Eastern Ottawa Community Resource Center
Center CALACS
Ottawa Rape Crisis Centre
Citizens for Public Justice
Somerset West Community Health Centre
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