Introduction to the Special Issue on Housing Precarity and Human Rights

This special issue brings together a collection of papers examining the legal dimensions of housing precarity. While we originally imagined a special issue focused on homelessness and human rights, we agree with our contributors that housing precarity sits along a disparate spectrum, with homelessness at one end. People weave in and out of living situations, whether in shelters, apartments, rooming houses, and encampments. Human rights, and their violation, are engaged at all stages of this spectrum. Yet this relationship has been underexamined in Canadian legal scholarship. The pieces in this issue contribute to an important conversation about the intersection of housing, human rights, and homelessness.