The Village That Love Built: A Better Tent City

The Board © Courtesy of A Better Tent City

The Village That Love Built: A Better Tent City

RAYE MOCIOIU

What happens when a convenience store owner, a city worker, a priest, a builder, an educator, and a philanthropist-entrepreneur unite over a shared goal to care for their community? They give new meaning to the phrase “it takes a village.”

On the surface, it looks like a cluster of tiny homes, but A Better Tent City is far more than that. It’s the result of what happens when a community steps up to care for its most vulnerable members. What started with tents in a vacant industrial building is now a thriving village where people can find dignity, hope, and a fresh start.

Behind this initiative are the inspiring stories of those who made it happen—and the residents who call it home.

A LITTLE KINDNESS

It all starts with Nadine Green, Site Coordinator, Jill-ofall-trades, and de-facto ‘Mom’ at A Better Tent City. Forty years ago, Nadine moved to Canada from Jamaica with her mother and stepfather. At 16 years old, she felt her life had been turned upside down. She moved out of her family home and spent years hiding the fact that she was homeless, searching for unlocked apartment lobbies to sleep in after a day of school and extracurricular activities.

After high school, she moved to Kitchener, which she had heard was a better place for unhoused people. By 2004, she was running her own convenience store down-town and had earned a reputation for her generosity. She brought food home to struggling neighbours and offered a helping hand to those who needed it—even offering her store as a safe space to stay.

“My goal was to treat all of my customers with kindness and love regardless of their situation—so much so that I allowed unhoused people to start sleeping in my store at night,” she shared. “I knew everyone's name and most of their stories. One winter night, I saw people who had been in my store huddled outside trying to stay warm until morning. I couldn’t leave them like that, so I invited them back into my store to get warm. They had nowhere else to go.”

Word quickly spread, and soon, Nadine was feeding and sheltering tens of people every night. But it couldn’t last— in 2012, Nadine was evicted from her store. Unwilling to let vulnerable members of her community sleep on the streets, she began again in a new location.

“I even got rid of my apartment and built a bed in the back office of the store so I could supervise the scene and make sure I could always be open if someone needed shelter.”

In 2020, Nadine was evicted again. But this time, she had a better plan, thanks to Ron Doyle, a local business owner, and Jeff Willmer, former director of planning for the City of Kitchener.

The two presented Nadine with an idea for A Better Tent City, a community of tiny homes on Ron's underused industrial property. It was the beginning of an initiative that would change countless lives.

FROM TENTS TO HOMES

Just as Rome wasn’t built in a day, the path to creating A Better Tent City was a winding one.

"Supportive housing is not a straight line—you can't just take someone from being homeless to one day putting them in structured housing," said Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic. "There's a journey that needs to get them there."

When the initiative began, the goal was to create a pathway to employment and stable housing for these people. But what Nadine, Jeff, and Ron came to realize was that homelessness is rarely that simple—mental illness and drug addictions pose significant barriers for those who are unhoused.

Homelessness has long been an issue in Canada, but rates of unhoused people have risen since the advent of COVID-19. Canada faces one of the biggest gaps for developed countries between home prices and income levels, and in early 2024, a study from Equifax found that 50 per cent of Canadians are living paycheque to paycheque. Homelessness may feel like a faraway problem, but in reality, it’s much closer than we’d like to admit. Perhaps that’s why, in the midst of a global pandemic, the Kitchener-Waterloo community banded together to bring A Better Tent City to life.

For people experiencing homelessness, a shelter with a place to safely lay their heads is already impactful. But adding a sense of community and family is what makes all the difference. Even so, Ron knew tents were not enough. He came across garden sheds that he believed would work as tiny homes with the right insulation. He purchased 12 cabins, and Father Toby Collins, a spirited local priest, called on his congregation to support the initiative and purchase additional units. They ended up with over 40 cabins, with volunteers installing the insulation for each unit.

A year and a half later, Ron passed away, and his industrial property was sold. Looking to both keep his legacy alive and continue providing this critical support to the community, A Better Tent City was searching for a new home. It was then that City of Kitchener and the local school board stepped in to offer additional land. Even now, the school board staff visit regularly, offering support through donations and personal understanding.

Alair Homes, a custom home building and renovation franchise in the Greater Toronto Area, was more than happy to be involved. As home builders, giving back to the unhoused was already entrenched in Alair’s core values. They coordinated the servicing and construction of the shared-use buildings on the new site, including washrooms, showers, kitchen, and laundry services. They provided project management, obtained permits and approvals, and coordinated with designers and contractors to bring the new site to life.

Executive General Manager David Butler explained that their involvement was driven by their desire to make things better.

Working closely with Father Toby, who also provided landscaping services, Alair managed the installation, assembly, and supervision of a kitchen shelter that he had purchased.

But even with a stellar team working behind the scenes to bring this initiative to life, A Better Tent City truly came to life due to the tireless efforts of volunteers. These generous individuals, from all walks of life, provided tremendous support throughout the construction of the site and continue to be an important part of the initiative’s success, especially in the kitchen.

Lived experience makes a significant impact in initiatives like this one; several volunteers involved with A Better Tent City act from a place of personal understanding.

Kevin James Thomas, the founder of Big Jerk Smoke House, got involved to honour his father, who had long supported the homeless community.

Kevin and his mother provided hot, fresh meals for A Better Tent City, and Kevin continues to do so to this day.

Organizations like the Sanguen Health Centre, which stepped in with healthcare services tailored to residents’ unique challenges, have an employee base that comes from similar backgrounds and struggles. This mix of experiences is what makes them so effective in creating relationships built on trust and understanding—both critical in supporting such a vulnerable community.

A RIPPLE EFFECT

A project of this magnitude, the first of its kind in Canada, couldn’t be confined to the Kitchener-Waterloo area. Since opening its doors in 2020, A Better Tent City has inspired similar projects across the country.

While some skeptics question whether this model is sustainable, the founding members have been contacted by groups in other Ontario cities, such as Kingston, Peterborough, and Hamilton, that have been exploring replicating their model.

Nadine, for one, is not surprised. “We always knew it was going to work,” she said. “We currently have 42 homes and 50 residents. We are stable here. We are home.”

Like all communities, A Better Tent City is not without issues.

But importantly, the dedicated efforts of Nadine and all who provide support for the community ensure that these issues don’t interfere with the sense of home that has been carefully curated over the years.

"There are so many people who tell us things like 'I'd be dead right now if it weren't for Nadine,'" said Jeff. “She gave them a chance.”

Mayor Berry Vrbanovic says that compassion is the key to making this initiative more widespread.

"If you actually take the time to understand the stories of some of these individuals, you realize who some of them are connected to in the community," he explained. "Something in their life got them down this path. But the reality is that they are part of our community. They are mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles of people we know. The journey that got them here could happen to any one of us."

What began as a simple act of compassion has evolved into a national conversation about grassroots solutions to systemic problems. When communities band together, they can create something remarkable: a model of love that others are eager to replicate.

For those once on the margins of society, A Better Tent City is more than just a place to live—it’s a chance to heal, grow, and belong.