Washrooms approved: region funding toilet access for encampment residents

Community advocates have made the calls for weeks and the region says it's been working on it for a while. 

Washroom access will be funded for encampment residents, including people living at the Victoria and Weber encampment in Kitchener.

Through partnering with The Working Centre, a local social services organization, two security guards will be hired around the clock at St. John's Kitchen, located across the street from the Victoria encampment.

It will allow anyone experiencing homelessness to use the washroom facilities there anytime of day, seven days a week.

The estimated cost of the plan is $34,000 per month.

Regional councillors voted unanimously to approve the plan, but ahead of the vote, two business owners asked the region to break up the Victoria encampment. 

“Last Thursday, a man broke into our studio at 2 a.m. in the morning. He broke both the doorknob to our vestibule and also the one in our inner door. Once inside, he took the entire contents of our cash box, as well as a few items around our front desk,” said Jade Billo, who owns a nearby yoga studio.

Billo told councillors two weeks before this, a man threw a rock through the studio's glass door and shattered it.

Ryan Pettipiere, the director of housing services said an encampment risk assessment process is in the works, and the Victoria encampment is likely approaching medium risk.

“When that gets to a high risk, that tips the balance. It will force potentially having to take some action, in regards to moving people on from that site,” he said.

Pettipiere added that staff are trying to keep the risk of the encampment from increasing and are trying to balance different perspectives.

“I think it's an issue that quite frankly, requires a great deal of compassion versus criminalization,” said Kitchener mayor Berry Vrbanovic.

Julie Sawatzky, who runs 519 Community Collective collected a petition of almost 300 names in 24 hours to support providing washroom access.

She also suggested the region make showers at St. John's Kitchener available, saying that denying people human rights is denying their humanity.

“Fundamentally, this isn't about the individual. This is about a societal failure in certain issues, such as mental health, such as addictions, and the fact that we need to do more in order to deal with them. It's not something that we can do on our own,” said Vrbanovic.

The region will ask the province to dedicate funding for mental health and addiction support.

It will also ask the federal government to commit to sufficient funding for new affordable housing.

Regional staff estimate 135 people are living rough in 25 encampments locally.

There's no time frame yet for implementing the washroom access.

Residents of the Victoria encampment may also be forced to move with construction for a regional transit hub planned to start as soon as the fall.