Encampment by Maggie Helwig

We think, maybe, that homelessness is some kind of stable state, like being housed except without housing. Without really considering it, most people imagine that people who are homeless live in, if not one place, at least in one condition, that their days are in some way predictable. But homelessness is, more than anything else, a life of constant displacement.

The housing crisis plaguing major urban centres has sent countless people into the streets. In spring 2022, some of them found their way to the yard beside the Anglican church in Toronto's Kensington Market, where Maggie Helwig is the priest. They pitched tents, formed an encampment, and settled in. Known as an outspoken social justice activist, Helwig has spent the last three years getting to know the residents and fighting tooth and nail to allow them to stay, battling various authorities that want to clear the yard and prefer to keep the results of the housing crisis out of sight and out of mind.

Encampment tells the story of Helwig's lifelong activism as preparation for her fight to keep her churchyard open to people needing a home. More importantly, it introduces us to the Artist, to Jeff, and to Robin: their lives, their challenges, their humanity. It confronts our society's callousness in allowing so many to go unhoused, and it demands, by bringing their stories to the fore, that we begin to respond with compassion and grace.

(From Coach House Books)

Encampment is available in May 2025. 

Maggie Helwig is a white settler based in Tkaronto/Toronto. Helwig is the author of 15 books and chapbooks, including the most recent book, Girls Fall Down, which was on the Toronto Book Award shortlist and selected as the One Book Toronto in 2012. They are a social justice activist and an Anglican priest, serving as the rector of the Church of St. Stephen-in-the-Fields since 2013.