Bylaw State

Alexandra Flynn is an associate professor at UBC’s Allard School of Law and the director of the Housing Research Collaborative, where her teaching and research focus on municipal and property law. The Housing Research Collaborative comprises CMHC- and SSHRC-funded projects focused on Canada’s housing crisis: the Housing Assessment Resource Tools project, which helps communities to measure and address their housing need, and the Balanced Supply of Housing Node, which brings together academic and non-profit community partners to research responsive land use practices and the financialization of housing. She is the recipient of the 2024 Gold Roof Award for Housing Research Excellence.She is working on several projects related to housing law in Canadian cities, including legal protections for those living in tent encampments and the right to housing. Prior to entering academia, she practised corporate law in New York, where she was the recipient of several Legal Aid awards. She also practised Aboriginal law in Vancouver, representing First Nations, and worked in a senior policy role at the City of Toronto focused on intergovernmental relationships.Flynn is a past TEDx speaker, a frequent media commentator, and a keynote speaker. She has a long history of volunteer work.Joe Hermer is a criminologist and an associate professor in and chair of the Sociology Department at the University of Toronto Scarborough. He does research in the areas of policing, regulation, and state power, with a particular interest in vulnerable and street-involved populations. His recent work has focused on how municipal governments police homeless encampments and unhoused people in public space. He advises NGOs, charities, and legal advocates on anti-criminalization strategies and legal interventions. His recent work includes Policing Compassion: Begging, Law and Power in Public Spaces. Terry Teegee is the elected Regional Chief of the British Columbia Assembly of First Nations and proudly serving his third term in this position. Terry’s ancestry is Dakelh, Gitxsan and Sekani descent and he is a member of Takla Nation. As a former registered professional forester, Terry was responsible for looking after the forests, forest lands and forest resources. Terry is deeply involved in natural resources development and the pertaining policies. As Regional Chief, he was an instrumental voice in the development and historic passing of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA).

“This important and timely book alerts us to the powerful and overlooked work of the bylaw in regulating the unhoused. Bylaws are easily overlooked as technical, petty, or antiquated. Flynn and Hermer, however, urge us to take them seriously, revealing their powerful, dehumanizing and exclusionary effects. To fully understand the injustice of the unhoused, they insist, requires careful attention to the alchemy of the bylaw.”

• : Foreword by BC AFN Regional Chief Terry Teegee: Introduction: The Resuscitation of Vagrancy Law : The Legal Landscape of Homeless Encampment Regulation in Canada: A Case Study of Moccasin Flats (Prince George): A Case Study of CRAB Park (Vancouver): How Bylaws Are Seen: How Bylaws Are Unseen: The Housing Crisis and the Struggle for Public Space