Social Development Centre Waterloo Region

The number of people experiencing homelessness in Waterloo Region is increasing due to the lack of political will to change our approaches to financialized housing market as well as the current approaches to residents living in shelters and those unsheltered. Homelessness is a complex problem and requires deep collective thinking about the complicency of institutions, service providers and housed people in ongoing human rights violations of the homeless residents. Region of Waterloo staff and community partners will co-create a Plan to End Chronic Homelessness (The Plan) in 2023 so we can move from the current position of blaming individuals or upholding systems of harm towards a whole community being engaged in responses rooted in human right to housing. Social Development Centre is jining the Region staff and Overlap Associates in creating this roadmap for strategies that are rooted in reality and respectful of lived experience of unhomed residents. Together with the lived experts we will set the stage for hands on collaboration with partner organizations to test some of the responses and learn from prototypes that can involve processes, structures and services informed by lived experience.

"Lesley Crompton Tax Prep Services" provides free tax return preparation for low-income individuals and families (income <$45,000 per individual). Returns can be done virtual, drop off or in-person at the Civic Hub Waterloo Region Appointments are required for all returns and can be booked through email at lesleyacrompton@gmail.com or 519-572-2570.

The Many Faces of Displacement provincial project is well on its way in collaboration with the Social Planning Network of Ontario. Each of the regions involved in the project are close to finishing gathering stories of displacement and eviction in their communities, York Region, Cornwall and Area, Kingston and Oxford County. All of the regions gather weekly to discuss the stories they are hearing and the themes that are coming up repeatedly, as well as the similarities and differences they are seeing across the regions.

We may not need another research on homelessness and supports to homeless in Waterloo Region for a long time. A lot has been said and remains ignored to the large extent today. The project we are starting in collaboration with the Region of Waterloo with Prof. Brian Doucet at University of Waterloo and Prof. Laura Pin from Wilfrid Laurier University is rooted in participatory action research approach. Contradiction? The reason we are grounding it in self-reflective approaches, participatory methods and prototyping is to allow for the lived experience voices to be heard, responded to and their wisdom actioned upon by the regional and city governments. After the January court ruling on the 100 Victoria encampment, there is a greater recognition of the violations of the human rights to shelter, safety and life, we wish to contribute to a greater awareness of the urgency to act in collaboration with lived experts on initiatives similar to the hybrid shelter in Waterloo or access to warming centres during weekends and holidays. Together with the partners on this project we hope to do this work with, not for, the people who gained invaluable insight and resilience through struggle, hardship and ongoing criminalization. As the project evolves through the regional planning to end chronic homelessness, take a listen of the podcast Prof. Brian Doucet recorded with Beyond the Bulletin.