Region to clear Victoria Street encampment despite passionate opposition from delegates

It was a tense evening at regional headquarters on Wednesday as council passed a bylaw that would remove the encampment at 100 Victoria St. N. to make way for the construction of the Kitchener Central Transit Hub.

Regional staff created a site-specific bylaw that would move the roughly 35 residents out of the encampment on Victoria Street near the Weber Street intersection and into supportive housing or temporary motels, asking for an additional $800,000 to help with that move by Dec. 1.

The bylaw would also make it so that anyone found breaching those rules would be fined up to $5,000.

The more-than-five-hour council meeting was taken up mostly by delegates who spoke in defence of those living at the encampment, sharing various perspectives on the issue and on the Region of Waterloo’s Plan to End Chronic Homelessness.

“Having listened to the delegations before me, I’m struck by the incredibly rich expertise about homelessness in this room and this region,” said Meagan Snyder of the Unsheltered Campaign. “What an incredible asset in building an innovative, human rights-based approach to homelessness.”

“I find this proposed bylaw, and we do at Unsheltered Campaign, to be incongruent with that collaborative, innovative approach.”

Another delegate, Lynn Intini, claimed that the region’s actions were similar to those of a bad-faith landlord renoviction for the tenants of 100 Victoria St.

“Where was the notice of hearing that a tenant would get from the landlord-tenant board? Keeping it quiet in order to minimize the number of people who would be offered anything at all: that is scuzzy landlord logic. Today, you are being asked to vote for a bylaw that would essentially have you signing off on a bad-faith eviction,” said Intini.

Another facet to consider in the creation and execution of this bylaw is a decision from the Ontario Superior Court from 2023, in which Justice M.J. Valente ruled that the region’s attempts to clear the 100 Victoria St. encampment were in breach of its residents’ Charter rights.

Regional staff are seeking further guidance from the court to discern if the bylaw is “feasible and compatible with the anticipated construction schedule.”

Ashley Schuitema of Waterloo Region Community Legal Services was co-council for the encampment residents in 2023 and delegated at Wednesday’s meeting.

“Passing a new bylaw instead of following the procedure set out by the court in the existing order is improper,” she said. “It has the badges commonly recognized by courts as a bylaw passed in bad faith, and I urge you not to pass this bylaw tonight.”

Shannon Down, formerly of Waterloo Region Community Legal Services, also represented those residents in 2023. Speaking as a concerned resident after retiring from that role last year, Down urged the region to seek an alternate location for the encampment on Victoria Street because, as she sees it, the alternatives set out by the region don’t meet the needs of the encampment residents.

“We know that while the number of homeless people in our region exceeds the number of shelter beds by a factor of four to five, and it’s getting worse, then the reality is that there are going to be encampments around for a long time,” said Down.

Regional council ultimately voted in favour of passing the bylaw, with Councillor Pam Wolf representing the only vote in opposition. As the decision was read out, cries of “shame” could be heard from the gallery before it was cleared to move on to other matters.

The region will use the next seven months to implement their strategies and plans to remove the residents of the encampment with help from this site-specific bylaw.