Published September 2022
Have you been following our journey of creating low-barrier shelter options for the growing numbers of people living outside? We started with a pop-up shelter at St. Mary’s Church in 2019, and then moved to the old Tim Hortons at the corner of Frederick and Lancaster. These were temporary, open-space attempts to ensure people were safe in the winter months.
In October 2020, we opened University Avenue Interim Housing, demonstrating the model of interim housing as an alternative to the traditional shelter options. This model of housing for 80 people coming directly from the streets has been widely successful.
The need has only continued to increase, so we leaned in to the formal shelter system and made an Emergency Shelter happen at St. Andrew’s Church in December of 2021, and when our time there was up, we moved to the Edith MacIntosh daycare centre on Stirling Ave in July of 2022. We continue to support over 60 people in various motels.
We now have a new home for this shelter, located at 1668 King Street East, in the old Schwaben Centre, renting space from Stephen Litt of Vive and Woodhouse Properties who are working towards a condominium complex on this site with construction to start by June of 2024.
Along with the Region of Waterloo, we are actively working with neighbours to understand what it means to welcome a shelter to their neighbourhood. It is very complex work to find potential space that also balances community needs and capacity. We are holding a firm ethic that leaving people outside in the winter months is an unacceptable situation. Most people who are living in encampments are there from necessity, not choice – we don’t have affordable housing for growing numbers of people. We don’t treat lightly the complexity of neighbourhood challenges, and we are inviting the K-W community to help us to navigate the impossible complexities we face as a community.
It was with a feeling of joy (and exhaustion) that we managed to turn this space into a shelter in less than a week, necessitated by the end or our agreement at Edith MacIntosh. So many people leaned in to make the space into a congregate shelter. For now we are in the door, but so much more work to do to add showers, talk with neighbours, and to move this emergency shelter into a more stable 24/7 operation that gives shelter residents a place of stability through the winter months.
This one space is not enough, and the Region is inviting people to lean in to expanded shelter/interim housing options. The cold weather is here. Warm clothing, blankets, food to the Foodbank, shelter, housing – a place of welcome – such basic necessities. Waterloo Region has always been a place of welcome. Yet the challenge of increased numbers of people experiencing long-term homelessness, the impacts of drug addiction, and the reality of the rising cost of renting an apartment are all contributing to a new environment that calls for wider community responses.
