Alexandra Flynn

October 29th, 2026

Associate professor at UBC’s Allard School of Law, Alexandra Flynn shows how cities use bylaws “as powerful and often violent legal instruments,” she says, when it comes to dealing with unhoused people in The Bylaw State: Encampment Evictions and the Struggle for Public Space (Fernwood $25), coauthored with Joe Hermer. The authors use case studies from Prince George (Moccasin Flats and Millennium Park) and Vancouver (Crab Park) to demonstrate that bylaws are the primary response of governments to unhoused people living and surviving in public spaces when they have nowhere else to go. They also argue for a more inclusive approach that protects people not just spaces. 9781773638027

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