Packed washrooms, limited beds lead to visitor ban at A Better Tent City
Posted Sep 4, 2025 07:31:59 AM.
Last Updated Sep 4, 2025 11:57:01 AM.
New rule changes are in effect at A Better Tent City on Ardelt Avenue in Kitchener, with growing concerns of overcrowding and safety leading to a visitor ban on the site.
It went into effect on Labour Day, Sept. 1, after the board for A Better Tent City met in August to discuss the rising number of people on site.
With 42 cabins on location, supporting and housing 50 residents, the board said its previously ongoing rule for visitors led to an increased number of people on site, pushing it well above capacity.
“It’s not that visitors will never be allowed at A Better Tent City. What we’ve done is we’re just taking a break for a couple of weeks. It’s a reset,” said Marion Thomson Howell, Director with A Better Tent City Waterloo Region. “It’s giving us a bit of time for a breather to then determine how we’re going to welcome visitors back in a sustainable way.”
She said, previously, the rules would allow for each resident to have one visitor on site for up to three days, but that would often extend to days or even months further due to the ongoing issue of housing and homelessness in Waterloo Region.
Howell stated that it made for growing tensions at A Better Tent City as resources and space began to dwindle.
“With that volume, what happens is there’s no place for people to sleep. We’ve had tension over showers, washrooms, laundry,” stated Howell. “We just don’t have the capacity to manage that many people.”
It’s a decision Howell said was tough for the board to have to make, not wanting to put intensive restrictions in place on those actively using the space.
“We tried a number of things to control the numbers, but we’ve gotten to the point where we have on a daily basis, far more visitors than we have actual residents,” Howell mentioned. “Some problems have arisen as a result of that. But when people suggest we have gotten rid of visitors, that’s quite incorrect.”
She stated that the visitor ban will be in place for at least the next few weeks in order to gauge the impact on the site’s population.
After that, Howell said the board will meet once again in October to rediscuss and reassess what changes can be made, as well as the potential to lift the ban moving forward.
