Social Development Centre Waterloo Region

SDC Presents Public Camping Petition to Regional Council

Safe Tenting Delegation (Feb 10, 2026) Recap 1 On February 10, 2026 we delegated to the Region of Waterloo’s Community & Health Services Committee about our petition on public camping.

As stated by David Alton, Facilitator of Lived Expertise at SDC, "governments are not building housing fast enough. And there's many barriers to building housing quickly. But we still have human rights obligations." In the current reality, where housing and shelter options are neither adequate nor accessible to hundreds of the 2300+ people experiencing homelessness in Waterloo Region, public camping offers an option of last resort.

Keep reading for a recap of background facts and figures, how safe tenting offers an option of last resort, the overwhelming support our petition received from community, our requests to Council, and next steps in this campaign.

A Documentary Informed by Our Research with UWaterloo

Over the past 8 years, SDC has been privileged to partner with Dr. Brian Doucet from the University of Waterloo on a number of research projects on homelessness and displacement. On January 26, we will be partnering with UWaterloo once more for a free screening of Dr. Doucet's new documentary, Thinking Beyond the Market: A Film About Genuinely Affordable Housing.

6:30pm - doors open
7:00pm - film screening
8:30pm - panel discussion and Q&A with Dr. Brian Doucet

The film features more than 30 interviews with planners, policymakers developers, housing advocates, residents, and politicians. It inspires us to think about the root causes of the housing crisis and the transformative solutions hiding in plain sight.

Join our Q&A on Homelessness & Encampments

Given the alarming pace at which homelessness is increasing, and the mismatch between current needs and available resources, homeless encampments are on course to persist - and potentially even multiply - in our communities.

What are the tools we need to navigate this forecasted reality? What constrains our options, and where are there opportunities to do things differently?

On January 21, 2026 (6-8pm), bring your questions to a candid Q&A with:

The City of Kitchener Bylaw Enforcement Team
Waterloo Region Community Legal Services
A Lived Expert from SDCWR
Sanguen Health Centre

RSVP today: tinyurl.com/uz56c3tn
Click on the image above for a PDF version of the event poster.

SDC Petition Calls for a Public Camping Bylaw

SDC is currently collecting signatures for a paper petition calling for a public camping bylaw in Waterloo Region. There currently isn't adequate support within Regional Council for such a bylaw, but that could change with your support!

How to Support Our Petition

Download a copy of the petition
Sign it and, if possible, ask others in your life to also add their signatures
Scan the signed copy and email it back to us at sdcwr@waterlooregion.org ASAP (our deadline to submit the petition to the Region of Waterloo is Friday, Feb 6, 2026!)

The need for public camping or "safe tenting zones" was brought into sharp focus by the Region's latest Point in Time Count, which found over 2,300 people experiencing homelessness in October 2024 - a number that far exceeds the 674 overnight shelter spaces available across the Region.

Click on the image to read SDC's David Alton explain our thoughts on public camping during a conversation on The Mike Farwell Show.

Holiday Closure & Planning Week

Our office will be closed December 22, 2025 - January 2, 2026, as our teams take some time to rest and reset - we hope you are able to do the same.

We will return to work on January 5, 2026, but please be patient with us as we will be dedicating most of that week to planning for the year ahead, and our responses may be slower as a result.

As we close out the year, we are filled with gratitude for all the ways you show your support for the work we do - whether you read our updates and newsletters, sign and share a petition, attend our events, donate, or even just occasionally click on a link. We thank you for walking this path with us. And we look forward to reconnecting in the new year - in hope, in struggle, and in solidarity.

Spotlight on our Grassroots Climate Resiliency Project

The Grassroots Climate Resiliency Project is a two-year project that seeks to understand and uplift the ways marginalized communities keep themselves safe during climate emergencies. In the absence of adequate planning and support from governments and other institutions, these community-led responses can be life-saving and need to be scaled.

We're humbeled that this collaboration between SDC and Wilfrid Laurier University's Veissmann Centre for Engagement and Research in Sustainability (VERiS) was recently featured in Funding the Common Ground, a report by Gore Mutual Insurance.

Bill 60 Myth Busting and Tenant Education

Bill 60 - a new piece of legislation that weakens tenant protections by amending Ontario's Residential Tenancies Act - received royal ascent in the legislature on Nov. 24, 2025. SDC is deeply concerned that the changes contained within this bill will magnify Waterloo Region's eviction crisis, and disproportionately harm tenants who are already vulnerable.

Many of the community members we support in Eviction Prevention are victims of landlord neglect and abuse. Educating them on their rights, dispelling misconceptions among policy-makers, and ringing the alarm on bad-faith evictions are integral parts of our work.

With Bill 60 now in effect, the need for tenant education and myth-busting has only intensified. In the coming months, keep an eye out for stories from our peer workers, who have a direct line of sight into the ways Bill 60 puts vulnerable tenants further at risk.

SDC Joins 130+ Groups Asking for Repeal of Bill 60

Stop Bill 60 (Encampment Justice Coalition, No Demovictions) Despite the concerns raised by tenants, community organizations, legal clinics, and even municipalities, Bill 60 will be put to a vote in the provincial legislature on Nov. 24, 2025.

SDC has co-signed a letter with 134 other organizations demanding that Bill 60 be repealed. Our concern remains that this piece of legislation could accelerate evictions, increase homelessness and encampments across the province, and undermine the right to housing for everyone who rents.

As we await the outcome of this vote, we stand in solidarity with all those asking the provincial government to stop Bill 60 and consult with tenants before any new housing policies are introduced. Read the full letter for more context.

2025 Lynn Macauley Community Educator Award

This National Housing Day, as David Alton, Facilitator of our Lived Expertise Program, receives the Lynn Macaulay Community Education Award for National Housing Day, we honour the legacy of community organizing that guides our work in housing and homelessness.

November 22 started to be recognized as National Housing Day in 2002, four years after a group of community advocates formed the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee and declared homelessness a national disaster.

More than two decades later, homelessness remains entrenched across the country...

2025 National Conference on Ending Homelessness

Lived Experts at CAEH Conference 2025 Between October 28 - 30, 2025 members of SDC's Lived Expertise Engagement Program were once again able to attend the National Conference on Ending Homelessness. Hosted annually by the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, the conference "brings Canada's movement to end homelessness together to learn from each other, connect, and accelerate progress."

For the lived experts we work with, the experience offers a unique opportunity to foster connections with other grassroots and mutual aid groups from across the country. Stay tuned for some of their reflections from this year's event...