Lasting encampments across GRCA properties require ‘a lot more attention’
Posted Jul 17, 2025 10:31:30 AM.
Last Updated Jul 17, 2025 02:27:40 PM.
As housing and homelessness continue to be long-standing issues across the country and locally in Waterloo Region, some concerns are being raised about the ongoing number of encampments across properties through the Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA).
It stems from numbers detailing the 41 ongoing homeless encampments found across the conservation area between May 2023 and the summer of last year.
Staff members across the GRCA previously stated that the lingering issue costs the region both time and money, totalling over 300 hours during that time to manage, clean up, and secure the various areas, along with the hiring of outside companies to help do so. Those costs exceeded $83,000.
It’s meant the growth of concerns in what’s actively being done throughout the region to help curtail the issue.
“If we’re going to solve the homeless problem, we have to solve the housing problem,” said Regional Councillor and former Cambridge Mayor, Doug Craig. “We’ve put a lot of money into it, and we’re trying to help people. It’s a superficial approach in some respects, and we’re not helping as many people as we can because we don’t have the resources. We don’t have the legislation.”
There is some mixed news when it comes to the developments over the past year, with no particular increases in the number of those encampments, but also no noticeable decline in their numbers.
Craig said it’s a problem that will only continue if no unified and concise solution is developed at a deeper political level.
“This is simply symptomatic of the problem across the region. We have 2,300 people across the region impacted. It’s a very difficult situation. It’s one that demands a lot more attention from our provincial reps and federal representatives.”
He mentioned that it has become a trickle-down problem, creating not only growing numbers in regards to the growing homeless population, but also extended headaches for other homeowners and residents across Waterloo Region.
“The average taxpayer in the region is not being heard enough in terms of what they’re going through with increasing property taxes year after year,” Craig stated. “A portion of which goes to help people who are unhoused.”
He said that, as of now, there is just not enough being done to consistently aid in reducing the problem, noting that much of the work being done is simply putting a pin in the issue.
He added that it’s slowly creating a bubble that could end up bursting if nothing changes and a clearer solution isn’t more actively developed soon.
