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  • Home
    • Information Pages >
      • January 18, 2023 Region of Waterloo Council Meetings
      • December 6, 2022 Region of Waterloo Meetings
      • 2022 Municipal Election Candidate Responses
      • Unsheltered Campaign 2022 Municipal Candidate Pledge
      • October 12, 2022 Region of Waterloo Council Meeting
      • Region of Waterloo Community Services Meeting October 4, 2022
      • August 18, 2022 Regional Council Meeting
      • August 9, 2022 Regional Community Services Comittee Meeting
      • June 22nd Regional Council Meeting
      • Living Rough: Victoria/Weber Encampment 1.0: Summer Recap
      • Living Rough: Washrooms
      • My "nickel": Victoria and Weber Encampment
      • Unsheltered: Living the Experince
      • Criminalization of Homelessness
      • Unsheltered Campaign Letters to Local Municipalities
      • How to help: Contributing to Unsheltered Needs & Shelter Supports
      • Housing: A Human Right
      • State of the City/Region by Local Municipalities
      • Substance Use and Homelessness
      • Housing Affordability Task Force
      • Info Page: Living Rough: Encampments
      • Housing First
      • May 9. 2022 -Region of Waterloo Community Services Committee Meeting
      • Region of Waterloo Council Meeting April 27, 2022
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YOUR CART

my standard "Nickel": Victoria and Weber Encampment Thoughts - June 2nd, 2022

People are literally without options right now. Truly no other choice but to put up a tent and call it home, and it is. There isn't enough shelter as is, and overflow is being reduced, from what's been a fairly stable cycle of increased provision for a few years, in part due to COVID funding decreases from Provincial levels. We did not, despite strong effort, acheive adequate capacity to meet the needs locally as is during COVID measures, so the further reduction is as well deeply impacting. 

​The encampment at Victoria and Weber may well be too big. It should have had a capacity limit and plans for overflow to mitigate and prevent excess growth long ago. Reasonably people will gravitate to it, as it offers the most literal version of survival likelihood. Water, shelter, food, bathrooms... all in proximity.

What boggles me the most at the moment however is the depicted intent to further penalize those there, professing full site removal being required. There are options that can respect the people there and the community. Our failing to initiate these and to adapt will be a choice, one causing harm unnecessarily. We must not do this when we can do better.

How can we choose to penalize those there for our own errors and lack of foresight? Instead we must adjust, evolve, collaborate, and grow. 

There will be no good left in our world, nor community, if we cannot find balance and mutual care instead of tearing each other further apart.

May we start here, at least for a moment? Because we could.  


​
  • In Defense of Complexity -Melissa Bowman
  • Evicting the homeless from downtown site will only make it worse - Martin Asling via The Record 
  • Region of Waterloo:
    ​Temporary Shelters Extended to End of June 
    ​

@CityKitchener @cityofcambridge @citywaterloo

You've been passed "the baton". What's your plan? #unsheltered#Solutions #community https://t.co/PbhXqLzpjt

— Regan Sunshine Brusse (@ReganBrusse) May 30, 2022

  • "It's more trauma" - The Record
  • Victoria campers could be evicted any day now - The Record
  • ​Region says high safety risk at Kitchener encampment, residents will have to move - CTV
  • Homeless man leaves encampment at Weber and Victoria, pitches tent near Kitchener Public Library - Waterloo Chronicle
  • "Elevated safety risk": Victoria encampment residents may have to go sooner than expected - City News​
  • Opinion: Five Reasons the Region of Waterloo won't evict the homeless from Victoria encampment - The Record

  • ​​​The Criminalization of Homelessness
  • Housing: A Human Right
  • 2022: The State of Our Municipalities
  • Living Rough: Encampments
  • ​Living Rough: Washrooms
  • The Housing First Approach
  • Substance Use and Homelessness​

Because there must always be music...



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