WATERLOO – MPP Catherine Fife met with community members on November 14 to discuss how the housing crisis is affecting Waterloo region. Fife spoke with Barbara Hill, from the Waterloo Region Alliance to End Homelessness, Brian Paul, executive director of Supportive Housing of Waterloo (SHOW), and a senior SHOW resident, Robert.
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During their discussion, Fife noted, "Homelessness is increasing in Waterloo region with an average annual growth of 28% since 2020. In the past five years, chronic homelessness has increased by 129%. There are around 600 people experiencing chronic homelessness who are on the Prioritized Access To Housing Supports list in Waterloo region. Many require supportive housing to exit homelessness, but the 570 existing supportive housing units in our community are already at capacity."
Hill said, "I think the barrier right now is that we are not working at the province on that, and everywhere we go, we do hear that statement that the province is just not at the table."
Paul added, "An individual who's in supportive housing, it's costing the system less. So, every $10 invested in supportive housing, (that's) savings of over $21 to the system. Someone staying in a hostel bed, as opposed to permanent supportive housing, costs the system 22 times as much. So, it just makes sense on all levels, from a compassion perspective, but also from a common sense and a financial perspective."
Fife called out the Ford government for not taking homelessness in the province seriously enough.
"More and more Ontarians are unhoused, and while the provincial government now has 37 cabinet ministers, none of them has the job of focusing on this crisis. That's why there are so many unanswered questions that span more than a dozen ministries."
She heard the powerful story of Robert, a local senior who became homeless at the age of 68. His life was transformed after he moved into a SHOW residence. "Homeless people were not elderly," he said. "That's new, and it's only in the last five years that it's become a crisis."
Fife noted, "Homelessness is a humanitarian crisis, and we need the province of Ontario to make it a healthcare priority. Supportive housing provides better health outcomes, it saves money, and that's a win-win for all of us in this great province."
Sign the "Fight To End Homelessness" petition Call on the government to commit to designating homelessness as a humanitarian crisis and make it a healthcare priority, and dedicate resources and support partnerships with not-for-profits to address the need for community housing.