Region ready to open temporary location for homeless residents

Leah Gerber

Observer Staff

“THIS WAS MUD UP

UNTIL yesterday,” Chris McEvoy said cheerfully Tuesday about the recycled asphalt covering the site of Waterloo Region’s temporary outdoor shelter at 1001 Erb’s Road near the border of the city of Waterloo and Wilmot Township. Workers are busy finishing up the communal space at the site, as residents are expected to be moving into the circle of temporary outdoor shelter cabins as early as this week.

“This is not housing, it’s not permanent housing. We want to support people into affordable and permanent supportive housing. The Working Center and other partners will be supporting folks as quickly as they can to move into those housing units,” said McEvoy, the manager of housing policy and homelessness prevention with the region. Each cabin of about 107 square feet has a bed, desk, chair, and mini-fridge and comes equipped with heating and cooling.

A larger communal space on site has running water, a common area, a kitchen, washrooms, laundry services, heating and electricity.

The site is managed by the Working Centre and will have expectations and guidelines for staying. The site will be staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with support services and security.

The services include mental health and addictions supports with the goal to help connect the residents to permanent housing. Food will be supplied from the Working Centre.

A shuttle will run between the site and the downtown core several times a day.

Region staff estimate there are about 1,000 people experiencing homelessness in the region right now, including about 450 people who are chronically homeless, meaning they are experiencing homelessness for long periods of time.

The first people invited to come live in the outdoor space are people in the highest visibility areas, priority areas, people living in camps, McEvoy said. Residents were invited individually through the Working Centre staff who have developed relationships with people in the homeless population.

“We’re starting with those in the high risk or high visibility encampments, those the most disconnected from services, so starting with the folks at the encampment at 150 Main Street in Cambridge, Roos Island in Victoria Park in downtown Kitchener, at 100 Victoria in Kitchener. Starting with individuals there, I believe we’re up to 40 individuals who have signed with expressed interest and signed participation agreements,” McEvoy said.

So far, about 40 people are signed up and ready to move in to the site. That includes 11 couples and

→ SHELTERS 6 a professor in the department of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Waterloo and director of the Innovative Transportation System Solutions Lab.

“At roundabouts, the idea is to convert every other movement into merging and diverging, which has eliminated this certain type of conflict like right angle or head-on conflicts, which are usually associated or could lead to failure and fatalities,” he said.

The two new circles in Woolwich Township will be single-lane roundabouts, with landscaping → ROUNDABOUTS 5 in the middle. Pedestrian crossings with medians in between the lanes and reduced speed limits in the area surrounding the roundabouts will be included as safety features.

Steve van de Keere, the director of transportation

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