Holiday Closure & Planning Week

2025 Office ClosureOur 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

Funging the Common Ground GRCP SpotlightThe 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 Eviction Prevention Story 1aBill 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

2025 Lynn Macauley Community Educator Award Recipient David AltonThis 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 2025Between 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...

Bearing Witness to an Encampment Eviction

Cambridge Encampment Eviction Story Recap 1On Nov. 4, 2025, SDC was a third-party observer as an encampment was cleared from private property in Cambridge. Among those being evicted were three women in their 60s.

We're grateful that concerned community members and volunteers from Unsheltered Campaign were present to offer mutual aid and support, even as questions lingered about where the women would land in the coming days, considering both shelters in the city were already at capacity.

Keep reading for a recap of the coverage in the Cambridge Times, and what you can do to help...

Tenant Organizing Call on Bill 60

Tenant Organizing Call On Bill 60Bill 60 will make it easier for tenants in Ontario to be evicted, despite the hardships they may be facing or even neglect and abuse by their landlord. Join our Tenant Organizing Call to learn how this new piece of legislation could diminish your rights and threaten your housing security. We want to share what we’ve learned with you and hear how you’d like to organize locally to stop Bill 60.

  • Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025
  • 7:30pm via Zoom
  • RSVP for link

Check out our graphics on the risks posed by Bill 60...

A Memorial for Carol Kennedy

Carol Kennedy Memorial LunchPlease join us for a memorial lunch for Carol Kennedy, a longstanding anti-poverty advocate who passed away on October 3, 2025. Carol was a valued member of the Civic Hub and Lived Expertise Engagement Program at SDCWR, and also numerous grassroots groups across the community, including People’s Action Group, Living Below the Line, Poverty Professors, and ALIVe.

Please join us to share stories and honour Carol’s life.

  • Tuesday, Oct 21, 2025
  • 12pm - 2pm
  • 23 Water St. N, Kitchener (enter on Duke St.)

Mass Evictions Prevented at 250 Frederick

Tenant Organizing Victory at 250 Frederick (Oct 2025)Collective action has successfully prevented mass evictions at 250 Frederick St. - and it's all because tenants stood together and fought back!

30 units of affordable housing have been preserved in Kitchener as a result of solidarity between tenants, legal representation from Waterloo Region Community Legal services, tenant organizing support from our Eviction Prevention team, and growing support from the community at large. 

Keep reading for our reflections on why this victory highlights the need for better tenant protections...