Region looks for help to find 'spaces, places, properties, infrastructure' to create interim housing options

At mid-September, with cooler weather on the way, Waterloo regional officials know they need to move quickly on housing initiatives for people currently living in encampments or on the streets.

Ryan Pettipiere, the region's director of housing, says since regional council approved interim housing initiatives during a meeting last month, staff have been working to secure interim housing. That includes looking at:

• The expansion of the traditional housing program.
• Expansion of supportive housing through the home-based support program.
• Additional emergency shelter spaces.
• Plans for a temporary, managed outdoor shelter.
• Doing a study of the issue and completing a homelessness master plan. The work for this is planned for 2023.

"We've been working to implement as many of these as quickly as we can. Some, by their nature, are going to take a little bit longer. Some are optimistic about having [it] in place in the coming weeks and days," Pettipiere said in an interview Thursday morning on CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's The Morning Edition.

"We're looking for spaces, places, properties, infrastructure to partner [with] to implement these solutions as soon as we can," he said.

Pettipiere says there are about 20 encampments around the region, although the number of encampments and people who are staying in them fluctuates regularly. There are two visible encampments in Kitchener: One in an empty lot that's owned by the region at the corner of Victoria and Weber streets near the train station and one in Victoria Park.

"By the end of the year, we want to have implemented sufficient emergency shelter capacity to meet the demand through the winter. That's first and foremost on our list," he said.

Site needed for managed outdoor encampment

The home-based support program is also something the region can move on quickly, he said, while the managed, outdoor shelter will take more time because the region needs to find a spot for it.

"It's really going to depend on what we can find and where we can find it and how quickly," he said.

The region is consulting with people who are living in encampments, people with lived experience and local agencies already supporting people living in encampments or on the streets to ensure they create a space that people will use.

"Knowing our weather patterns here in this country, it's going to need to be a place that is safe in our opinion for people and also to get in out of the cold. So it's going to have a mixture of both indoor and outdoor options for people," he said.

Need to 'start solving the issue'

Peter Sweeney, the region's commission of community services, explained to regional councillors last month during a committee meeting how a managed encampment might work.

"When we talked about managing, we envision a scenario where we would have a community partner willing to staff and provide the services required and the amenities required on the site," Sweeney said.

Regional staff want to ensure any plans brought to council are solutions to solve homelessness, Sweeney said.

"We have to ensure that any temporary interim solution is just that and that they are tied into a longer term homelessness master plan that seeks to end homelessness so that we do not run into the unintended consequence of having temporary solutions that become long-term in nature," Sweeney said.

Pettipiere acknowledges this is not happening right now. That's why a study and master plan are needed.

"What we've seen over the course of the past few years with the increase of inflow of people into a situation of homelessness, we've been just struggling to keep up with the demand for additional emergency response spaces," Pettipiere said. 

"We need to get beyond that and start solving the issue on the other end and that's the more comprehensive exercise."

LISTEN | Ryan Pettipiere, director of housing for Region of Waterloo, on what is being done to address homelessness.