Kitchener council gets earful from housing advocates over Roos Island response

The City of Kitchener continues to face pushback over its recent response to a homeless encampment in Victoria Park.

It comes after an effort last month to shutter access to Roos Island in a bid to pressure people living there to move elsewhere. That effort also resulted in a protest in which three people were charged.

Despite this, at this week’s council meeting, advocates for those experiencing homelessness locally did acknowledge a continued reason for hope and optimism.

“What fuels this hope is the strong foundation of the ‘Housing For All‘ strategy that endorses the principles of a human rights approach [to addressing homelessness],” said David Alton with the Social Development Centre Waterloo Region, one of  handful of delegates to speak to Kitchener council on Monday.

“That foundation makes the actions on April 26 and 27 feel like a train that has jumped the tracks,” Alton continued. “It is bumpy and messy right now, but the track is right there and we have the tools to get back on it.”

Advocates were also clear those tools are contained in the strategy itself.

“This strategy outlines a compassionate and human rights based roadmap for addressing homelessness and the need for more affordable housing in the City of Kitchener,” said Shannon Down, executive director, Waterloo Region Community Services who also represented residents at the Victoria and Weber streets encampment in court and won.

“These are thoughtful and compassionate priorities — but a strategy is only as good as its implementation and its application to real world scenarios,” she said, suggesting the city’s decision to fence-off, restrict, and further criminalize stray from that compassion.

“The policy for no new tents does nothing to solve the issue of homeless encampments, it just makes the issue less publicly visible,” said Down.