Yvon Dandurand and Megan Capp

A recent study of the experiences and support needs of people living at rest stops in Abbotsford, BC, identified opportunities for service providers, policymakers, and community organizations to improve their response to vehicular homelessness.[1] The findings show no single pathway into vehicular homelessness. Participants described diverse experiences that contributed to housing instability, including poverty, rising housing costs, disability, declining health, bereavement, relationship breakdown, eviction, justice system involvement, and difficulty accessing services and benefits. For many residents, housing loss resulted from multiple interacting factors rather than a single event. Improving access to justice is an important way to address the problem.

According to a report by the Law Society of BC, “Many people lack the resources and capacity to achieve the full benefit of the system of laws and processes in our society, and many people who do access the services end up experiencing financial and other hardship as a result of how the system and services operate, so it is necessary to ask how we can do better.”[2] The report identified the urgent need to provide “legal advice to people who are experiencing homelessness or at risk of eviction”[3]. Very few realistic pathways to justice are open to them, and those that are barely accessible.[4]

Similar findings have emerged in access-to-justice research, which shows that people experiencing poverty, homelessness, and other forms of vulnerability often face significant challenges in navigating complex systems and asserting their rights.[5] Legal and administrative barriers contribute to housing instability in ways that are often overlooked.

In the recent study, some participants described justice system experiences and access-to-justice issues that affected their housing. They cited landlord-tenant disputes, unlawful treatment by landlords, and a lack of affordable legal assistance. Some felt that existing redress mechanisms were difficult to navigate and rarely led to satisfactory outcomes.

Some study participants reported difficulty securing housing after incarceration. One man, after serving a seven-year sentence at Kent Institution and seeing his release plans fall through, had no housing and ended up living at the rest stop. Like others in the study, he found that what began as a temporary solution ultimately became a much longer stay. Other participants discussed the challenges associated with criminal records, which they believed limited both employment opportunities and access to rental housing. Yet research has consistently identified housing as one of the most significant challenges for individuals returning to the community after incarceration. Housing instability can hinder social reintegration, while barriers to employment and income can further limit housing options.

Access to justice issues for people experiencing homelessness and near-homelessness require greater policy attention than they have received to date.

[1] Capp, M., Dandurand, Y., O’Hara, R., Lattie, C. (2026). The Experiences and Support Needs of People Living at Abbotsford’s Rest Stops. Cedar Outreach Society, EFry, Archways Community Services, ICCLR. https://icclr.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Abbotsford-Rest-Stop-Report.pdf

[2] “The Need for Better Data to Improve Access to Justice and Legal Services, Report of the Access to Justice Advisory Committee, Law Society of BC (December 5, 2025), pp. 123 -133. See https://www.lawsociety.bc.ca/getmedia/8672d451-7c44-4a85-994a-ac656a27d587/2025-12-05_agenda.pdf

[3] Idem, para 32.

[4] Capp, M. & Dandurand, Y. (2024) Towards People-Centered Justice: The Conflict Resolution Routes of People Facing Legal Problems. Canadian Journal of Law and Society, 39: 3, 468–489.

[5] Dandurand, Y., Jahn, J., Tait, C., & Capp, M. (2022). Navigating access to justice pathways: Problem resolution routes for people experiencing civil and family law problems in British Columbia. University of Victoria Access to Justice Centre for Excellence.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash.