Marta-Marika Urbanik – The Conversation

A homeless man stays in a warm area after having dinner at a shelter in Thunder Bay, Ont. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

August 26, 2025

Drug dealers are plundering people’s homes into ‘trap houses,’ driving up homelessness and violence in Thunder Bay

Marta-Marika Urbanik, University of Alberta; Carolyn Greene, Wilfrid Laurier University; Katharina Maier, University of Winnipeg, and Matthew Valasik, University of Alabama

Fentanyl dealers expanding into new markets across Canada are devastating smaller cities like Thunder Bay, fuelling violence and worsening the homelessness crisis.

Tents belonging to unhoused people on a sidewalk in downtown Edmonton on June 15, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson

December 19, 2023

Canada must recognize anti‑homeless attacks as hate crimes

Katharina Maier, University of Winnipeg; Carolyn Greene, Athabasca University; Justin Tetrault, University of Alberta, and Marta-Marika Urbanik, University of Alberta

Being homeless compounds the risk factors that make people more vulnerable to hate-motivated attacks.

A wall at a supervised consumption site in Ottawa is decorated with notes written in chalk. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

January 16, 2023

Supervised consumption sites reduce drug overdoses and disease transmission — and deserve government support

Carolyn Greene, Athabasca University; Katharina Maier, University of Winnipeg, and Marta-Marika Urbanik, University of Alberta

Supervised consumption sites provide essential community connections and services for those who use them. By closing them, governments are risking the welfare of people who use drugs.

Contact Marta-Marika for