Below is an excerpt from a report I worked on over the past few years.

Personal belongings have physical and emotional significance for everyone. For precariously housed and unhoused people, personal belongings hold particular importance. Belongings can allow people to survive, particularly in outdoor spaces. Belongings also affirm individual identity and autonomy.

…the belongings of precariously housed people are at constant threat of seizure and disposal by state and private regulators. Precariously housed and unhoused people thus experience both physical and emotional harms that further their vulnerability and precariousness. The constant cycle of dispossession is a dehumanizing experience that amounts to significant emotional harm…

Canadian police and enforcement agencies in Canada have been found to be systematically racist. Indigenous, Black, and other racialized people are disproportionately over-policed in municipalities across the country. As police and other peace officers are often instigating or involved in the enforcement of laws and bylaws regarding the possessions of precariously housed and unhoused people, systemic racism similarly impacts racialized people and their security of belongings. Racism underscores every discussion about laws and bylaws which have been used, and continue to be used, to control precariously housed and unhoused people and their belongings.

Read more here: belongingsmatter.ca