The last week’s Out of the Cold site closures have got our community talking urgently about homelessness, and we should. In 2013, Waterloo Region’s homeless shelters served almost 3,500 men, women and children.
It’s widely known that there are close to 3,300 households waiting up to six years for affordable housing on Waterloo’s community housing wait list. What seems to be less well known is that there are almost 1,500 households waiting for supportive housing, and many of those waiting are homeless.
Supportive housing can take a wide range of forms, from a few hours a week of home-based assistance all the way to fully staffed residential programs. But in all its forms, the purpose of supportive housing is to keep people, often with mental illness or addictions, permanently and stably housed, in homes that are their own.
Waterloo Region has adopted The Homelessness to Housing Stability Strategy, with the goal that we will be ‘an inclusive community where everyone has adequate housing, income, and support to make a home’. But currently, we are 1,500 units of supportive housing short of meeting that goal.
It won’t be an easy goal to reach, and getting there will require collaboration with all levels of government, business, not-for-profits, community groups and community members. But I believe it must be a priority of Regional Council in the coming years, and if I’m elected I will make it my priority.
I hope you will support me.
It’s widely known that there are close to 3,300 households waiting up to six years for affordable housing on Waterloo’s community housing wait list. What seems to be less well known is that there are almost 1,500 households waiting for supportive housing, and many of those waiting are homeless.
Supportive housing can take a wide range of forms, from a few hours a week of home-based assistance all the way to fully staffed residential programs. But in all its forms, the purpose of supportive housing is to keep people, often with mental illness or addictions, permanently and stably housed, in homes that are their own.
Waterloo Region has adopted The Homelessness to Housing Stability Strategy, with the goal that we will be ‘an inclusive community where everyone has adequate housing, income, and support to make a home’. But currently, we are 1,500 units of supportive housing short of meeting that goal.
It won’t be an easy goal to reach, and getting there will require collaboration with all levels of government, business, not-for-profits, community groups and community members. But I believe it must be a priority of Regional Council in the coming years, and if I’m elected I will make it my priority.
I hope you will support me.