From Extreme to Low: An evolution of strategy to mitigate OH&S Risks in Homeless Encampment Cleanup

I have been honoured to work with a current client who I align with on key values.  And in this work, I have walked them through the first risk assessment of my 20-year career where, when controls are applied, they have successfully driven a risk from extreme to low.  What struck me was that it wasn't until a significant portion of the process had passed that we realized a change in strategy was the pivotal control measure. This raises questions: Why did it take us so long to recognize the significant achievement we had made? If you stay with me, I'll delve into the key moments that led to realizing this success over the months of our partnership.

I am working on a Violence Risk Assessment (VRA) with a municipality that is attempting to provide a proactively managed and clean place for those without shelter (the homeless population.  Herein referred to as ‘Residents’) to shelter overnight next to a public park.  This is a highly charged and controversial societal concern, and this article only focuses on a single fractal: occupational health and safety (OH&S); however, the causal issues run deep and have many ripple effects that pose risks for multiple populations.  This article does not address any of those ripples beyond OH&S although they are important and significant.  

Initiating the VRA Process

Initially, I provided the VRA team with an introduction to basic safety concepts, including:

• hazard recognition;
  

• defining risk in terms of likelihood and severity;

• the hierarchy of controls;
  

• how to use the qualitative risk matrix tool;

• how to create quality corrective actions using the system’s approach and the S.M.A.R.T framework for effective goal setting; and,

• the steps we would follow to apply all the above to violence. 

While researching homelessness and the multitude of approaches being implemented across Canadian communities, I was also learning about my client’s approach by delving into their documentation and speaking to the staff assigned to work with me on the VRA team. The municipality had, within the past 1.5 years, established a fenced, overnight sheltering area in response to undesignated areas popping up spontaneously around the community with no oversight or management. This created unmitigated hazards not only for the population using those areas but also for anyone responding in an emergency and the public. The Municipality took a proactive approach by designating an overnight sheltering area and initially, weekly clean-ups were being done while residents were in their tents. This posed extreme unpredictability and risk as it was unknown what residents were doing in their tents. Also, the activities of staff sorting and removing belongings created further agitation of an already struggling population that does not have much and may view value differently.

A Shift in Approach

Many controls were employed during this time. The Bylaw Officer (the “Officer”) worked daily to educate and inform residents on the rules, fostering rapport and compliance. The slow evolution of garnering residents' cooperation is evident over the course of situation reports, speaking to the power of genuine care and dignity. The coordination of staff in performing clean-up activities and discussing risks was in place; however, these controls did little to significantly reduce risk. It was not until I learned that the approach significantly shifted for their last three clean-ups in September 2023. Through an education campaign, the Officer gained residents' compliance to take down their tents prior to staff beginning clean-up activities. On the day of cleanup, the Officer arrives three hours before the scheduled time with coffee and donuts for residents, reminding and encouraging them to pack up their tents and belongings and leave the fenced overnight sheltering area. The tents and belongings that each resident wants to keep are placed into a nearby Sea Can, which is later retrieved by the resident. Once the area is cleared, staff are given the ‘green light’ to enter and begin cleanup. Staff still work in pairs, each watching the other’s back. RCMP presence and staff assigned with the solitary task of maintaining situational awareness are still present; however, now that task can be targeted to the fenced perimeter and is not dispersed throughout the area with a question mark hovering over every tent. Within the hierarchy of controls, the use of elimination – one I did not think possible at the outset of this work – dramatically and instantly brought the risk level from extreme to low and made every other control already in place monumentally more effective.

Looking Forward: Strengthening Safety Measures and Worker Confidence

Now, there is still work to be done. During the period of establishing new work, growing pains were experienced while the best way to approach it was being discovered. Through this process, the risk was perceived as extreme in terms of violence. Now that controls have been discovered, driving the risk to low, documenting and formalizing the new procedures is necessary. Followed by educating and training workers to those procedures. And finally, following up on reported risks and incidents will go a long way in re-establishing worker confidence.

Challenges in Managing Homeless Overnight Sheltering

Currently, municipalities do not have standardized guidance or industry-specific standards or regulations to guide them in relation to managing homeless overnight sheltering. While reaching out to other communities through the VRA process, we gained a sense of the vastness of the need and response, from those not having a homeless population, to not having an area designated, to having both but managed differently. Managing the OHS risk of temporary overnight sheltering is new for many small communities across Canada. It is dauntingly complex amid competing priorities and demands, and many communities do not have a professional focused on OHS.

Shining Examples: Honouring

Those Who Keep Communities Safe

In closing, sometimes risk is overt – it is blaring and recognizable in an instant.  But, sometimes, risk control can be covert, especially when gently applied as is necessary when working with humans, especially vulnerable ones.  And this is why it took us so long to recognize the shift in strategy as the key mitigating control.  To those who work close to the risk and are unfamiliar with the OHS safety mindset, the shift in strategy was not articulated in a way that made it initially obvious as a control.  And this is why the VRA process is known to take upwards of six months to complete in a holistic way.     

While navigating the OHS legislation that requires a VRA and learning alongside this proactive client, mining their brilliance, I am in awe, and I am humbled.  Thank you for doing such important work for your community, while also keeping workers safe.  You are a bright light for us all.