A roadmap to ending chronic homelessness in Waterloo Region
Homelessness, along with the housing and affordability crisis, continues to impact our community and communities across the country.
We didn’t get here overnight. This has been a crisis 50 years in the making.
History
Decades of cuts to social housing and services have eroded the social safety net. Following the Second World War, in the ‘60s and ‘70s, the federal government invested heavily in social housing, building an average of 20,000 to 30,000 units across the country each year. By the late ’70s and early ’80s, however, that investment in social housing slowed to a trickle. In 1996, the federal government transferred responsibility for most of its low income social housing to the provinces.
In turn, the Ontario provincial government downloaded social housing to municipal governments in 1998. Ontario remains the only province in Canada to make social housing the responsibility of municipalities, even though municipal governments have less money to solve housing issues. Municipalities are facing 21st-century issues with a 19th-century funding tool — property taxes.
The result is a 30-year deficit in social housing.
Today, homelessness is usually the result of a number of factors, rather than a single cause:
- Poverty
- Mental Health
- Traumatic Life Events
- Racism
- Addictions
As the Region of Waterloo works to address this crisis, we see homelessness is an equity and health issue, not the result of people’s choices or failings.
Homelessness in Waterloo Region
As of February 2024, we estimate over 558 people are experiencing chronic homelessness across the region. Chronic homelessness is when someone experiences homelessness for more than six months.
From the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 to June 2023, the number of people on the waiting list for subsidized housing increased by 44 per cent.
In September 2023, we estimated that chronic homelessness has been increasing at a rate of 28 per cent year over year since 2020. If this trend continues, we predict it may reach over 1,600 people by 2028.
In Community, By Community, For Community
That’s where The Plan to End Chronic Homelessness comes in. The Plan is a bold, ambitious, and once in a generation plan to end chronic homelessness in Waterloo Region by 2030. The Plan was made in community, by community, for community, through input from across the region.
Experts, advocates, and individuals with lived expertise came together as co-creators of The Plan, to ensure perspectives that were historically excluded were captured. The Region partnered with Social Development Centre (SDC) to help The Plan include insights and knowledge from people who know homelessness personally.
“You have 40 organizations and many more people who have weighed in… These are the people that we turn to, to weave the social fabric that our community depends on and needs in order to thrive, to belong, to stay alive,” said Jen Gordon, who was part of the co-creator table. “Over the past year, these folks, myself included, have shared what they know to be true, their earned knowledge, and have expressed the solutions they believe will impact transformative systems change.”
Community Input
The Plan also prioritized input from the community, and we heard from hundreds of you as we built this plan in 2023.
Community conversations happened at pop-up booth locations across the region, online surveys, engagement labs, and interviews with people impacted by homelessness and housing instability.
The Plan to End Chronic Homelessness
Guided by the Region’s new Strategic Plan, “Growing with Care,” The Plan is one way the Region can accomplish its larger vision of Homes for All. The Plan recommends 30 actions to end chronic homelessness by 2030, and is guided by seven strategic focus areas:
- Create policy and system accountability
- Centre community voices
- Build system bridges
- Advance equitable housing
- Focus on preventing homelessness
- Change the narrative on housing and homelessness
- Advocate and collaborate for broader change
For more details on the recommendations and actions, see the Plan to End Chronic Homelessness Report.
Regional Council approved the Plan to End Chronic Homelessness on April 24. It is now our roadmap to prevent, address, and end homelessness in Waterloo Region by 2030. Stay tuned, as Regional staff will work with area municipalities, co-creators, and lived experts on implementing The Plan’s recommendations in the coming months.
You can join the conversation on social media with #ThePlanWR. Follow @ThePlanWR on Instagram and Twitter for updates. Visit EngageWR.ca/End-Chronic-Homelessness for more updates.
