Supportive Housing of Waterloo creating Tenant Wellbeing Support Fund

Two members of the Supportive Housing of Waterloo are saying farewell to two members of its Board of Directors. Tim Sothern has been a part of the board since October 2010 and is retiring as president. Mark Crowell who has been on the board since 2012 is retiring as the board's secretary. Both Sothern and Crowell have created a legacy of serving the people of the community. To honour their legacy, Gael Gilbert, executive director of SHOW says they are creating a Tenant Support Fund to help its tenants with expenses that would not normally fall into SHOW's budget. 

“We have a tenant who needs cancer treatment in Hamilton and during COVID it was fairly difficult to arrange rides, so it was almost about one thousand dollars in taxi fares to Hamilton. A fund like this would help us cover expenses like these.” 

Gilbert says just shy of half its funding comes from the Region of Waterloo “we have not had an increase in 10 years” the rest of the money within our budget comes from fundraising events. In light of COVID, fundraising has been a challenge itself. “People are counting their pennies as we all need to do. It is far more difficult to turn to the public and to say please let us, please the tenants who live in our building because there are so many desperate needs. We appreciate all the support we do get and we are very grateful for it” she said.

Adding a Tenant Support Fund would allow SHOW to help its tenants have access to critical health and quality-of-life related items. 

SHOW is working in collaboration with Canada Help's Great Canadian Giving Challenge, to support their Tenants Support Fund. Gilbert says they hope through this donation service to raise $20,000 “For every $1 donated through Canada Helps from June 1st to June 30th, SHOW will receive 1 entry into a grand prize draw for $20,000. To have a fund of potentially 40,000 to help our tenants cover expenses that we normally can't help them cover would be amazing.”