House of Friendship’s supportive housing project aims to set new standard in Waterloo Region

A new supportive housing project in Kitchener is under construction.

The House of Friendship’s new supportive housing project is taking shape in Kitchener.

The development, located along Charles Street, is being described as a potential model for addressing homelessness in Waterloo Region.

The first phase of the project known as Friendship Village will house roughly 100 people. Construction has already wrapped up on several floors that are visible from the roadway.

When complete, the building will provide affordable housing alongside onsite supports, including one-on-one assistance from personal support workers, healthcare services and counselling.

“What we’re building here is a pathway out of homelessness,” said House of Friendship’s CEO, Jennifer Scott. “What that means is half of the building has higher support; the other half has lower support. And as people stabilize their health care journey, they’ll literally move to the other side of the building to receive less support. Two years from now, we will have 70 more new units of housing, which is just affordable housing.”

Community resources such as The Food Bank of Waterloo Region’s mobile food hamper program will be available to residents. The building will also contain House of Friendship’s administrative offices.

The organization said the program is designed to help individuals transitioning out of homelessness rebuild stability and independence.

“We’ve learned from ShelterCare that when you fully integrate health care into housing, people access the resources and are able to get healthier quicker” Scott explained. “So we’ve taken what we’ve learned at ShelterCare, and are launching it here, within our supportive housing program. Success will look like people being stably housed, not just remaining housed, but thriving in their housing.”

In addition to shelter, residents will have access to programming aimed at developing and strengthening life skills, such as cooking and laundry, as well as opportunities to build community connections.

“On our second floor above our parking garage, we have a large terrace space that will include some beautiful gardens, as well as some plots for tenants to lease and plant their own vegetable gardens,” said senior manager of property services Cody Wagler. “Each floor has a patio or terrace as well. Just to ensure that all of our tenants and program participants have a lot of outdoor space that they can access at any time.”

The team hopes the project could become a “gold standard” for addressing homelessness and potentially be replicated in other communities.

“The program does include a large amenity space where meals will be provided daily to all residents,” Wagler said. “It gives a large activity space as well for tenants to either utilize, rent, run programing or just kind of meet collectively together. The program is a supportive housing program, so that does mean that there will be staffing here to provide supports to all tenants for 24/7.”

Construction is expected to continue through next fall, with residents anticipated to move in by the end of 2026.