How Waterloo Region and Guelph dealt with the homelessness issue in 2024

Encampment in downtown Guelph on Jan. 8, 2024. (Dan Lauckner/CTV Kitchener)

Communities across Ontario are still struggling to come up with a housing solution to address the growing number of people experiencing homelessness.

How they’ve dealt with the issue so far, however, has differed.

Wellington County and Waterloo Region are both responsible for housing in their areas, while cities have been figuring out what to do with encampments on a bylaw level.

In February 2024, Guelph’s mayor said he’d use “strong mayor powers” to fast-track affordability concerns around housing and homelessness.

“I think it’s prudent to be able to try and to move those things along faster so that the government knows where they need to steer, and go towards,” said Cam Guthrie. “But also, the public can see action being taken.”

That same month, residents complained about garbage at an encampment in the north end of Waterloo.

The City of Waterloo acknowledged clean-up comes at a cost, but as for removing the encampment, their hands were tied.

“I think the courts have made it clear that those that are precariously housed need to be connected with suitable housing, as opposed to just being evicted from public land,” said Nicole Papke, the city’s director of municipal enforcement services.

In April, members of Fight Back KW decided to build their own sandbag shelters at the Victoria and Weber Street encampment in Kitchener. That prompted safety concerns from both community groups and the region.

Guelph, meanwhile, started looking for private land donations to transform into housing.

Little came from that and, by the end of the summer and in response to a growing number of safety concerns, Guelph approved a bylaw regulating when and where encampments could be set up.

At that meeting, 43 delegates addressed council.

“The solution is not this bylaw,” insisted delegate Janice Folk-Dawson. “It is imperative that we recognize this crisis as a human rights concern, not a municipal bylaw issue.”

In October 2024, Guelph enacted the bylaw banning temporary structures in the downtown core and other spaces. The city initially provided a map of where they could go but removed and replaced it with an infographic.

“They’re whack-a-moling people around,” said Mars Russell, a community volunteer. “Our belief is that these folks are going to get displaced into suburban neighbourhoods on the outside, and folks in the city are going to go, ‘We don’t want them there either.’”

Premier gets involved

Premier Doug Ford spoke out on the encampment issue in September.

“If you’re healthy, get off your A-S-S and start working like everyone else is,” he said. “Get an application and drop it off at one of these companies and start working.”

Advocates in Waterloo Region pushed back against the premier’s take, saying a very small portion of people living in encampments are ready to work and need stable housing first.

“You almost 100 per cent need to be at least in shelter, housing is way better,” said Joe Mancini, director of The Working Centre, on Sept. 26. “There is always the potential to help an individual get past some of those issues, to get into stabilized housing. And over time, it is so important for people to work.”

The premier weighed in again on Oct. 28.

“Why don’t they use the notwithstanding clause or something like that?” Ford asked.

That is exactly what some mayors decided to do. About a week after the premier’s comment, Cambridge Mayor Jan Liggett handed Ford a letter signed by several big city mayors, telling him to use the notwithstanding clause.

“We don’t have the tools for ourselves currently because courts are not aligned with the social issues that we are facing,” Liggett told CTV News on Nov. 1.

A few weeks later, city councillors spoke out against the notwithstanding clause.

“Basically, it can be used by a province to suspend the rights of a group of people,” said former regional councillor Rob Deutschman on Nov. 18. “In Quebec, they’ve used it with respect to French language and religious symbols.”

The province told CTV News it would explore every legal tool available while also continuing to invest in homelessness prevention.

Encampment clearings

Heavy equipment showed up at encampments in Cambridge and Guelph in early November.

In Cambridge, tents were removed from Dundas Street and Samuelson Street. The city told CTV News that, in addition to emergency fire calls made from the area, the site was unsafe due to its proximity to a railroad track. They also said the encampment was on private property, and the owner would be billed for the cost of the removal.

St. George’s Square in Guelph was also cleared of tents and replaced with large planters, essentially blocking any future encampments.

“There was a notice to make sure that [the encampment residents] did leave by Nov. 13, or then things would have to then be escalated,” Guthrie said on Nov. 14. “[The residents] actually took up the offer of shelter, which we’re very grateful for, and they were moving into the shelter system.”

Volunteers who helped the encampment’s residents pack up said the heavy equipment got a little too close for their comfort.

“There was a sense of urgency, even though the notice for the eviction was set for 3 p.m., but the movement started as early as 8 a.m.,” explained community volunteer Eylul Ozekes.

State of the issue

In November, a new point-in-time report found 2,371 people were experiencing homelessness in Waterloo Region. That was more than double the total in 2021, as well as a 28 per cent year-over-year increase since 2020.

Those who work directly with the unhoused community were not surprised by the findings.

“We’ve been seeing those numbers for the last three years. We see it every day at St. John’s kitchen, numbers of people that don’t have a place to go,” said Mancini.

Additional housing of all types, he added, is needed across the community,

“We have to find a way to make facilities and housing available to people, otherwise the 2,800 individuals in our community don’t have a place to go,” said Mancini. “We have to find new ways of doing that. But it’s also a provincial responsibility and a federal responsibility – all need to step up.”

Each city and municipality continues to seek a solution that works, while also dedicating millions in their budgets to address the crisis.

“[The Waterloo Regional Police Service] indicated that they spent $1.4 million this past year in housing and homelessness encampments,” regional councillor Chantal Huinink said during a budget planning meeting on Nov 27. “So, any supports that we potentially remove from the plan to end chronic homelessness might look like a reduction in the budget but will ultimately cost the taxpayer more in the subsequent police budgets.”