On February 1, 2007, an article was published in The Record, Kitchener-Waterloo’s main newspaper, which noted the sale of a prominent downtown property. What made the sale newsworthy was the fact that it occurred despite prior plans to turn the building into subsidized housing for the city’s homeless. The subsidized housing plan went unrealized due to a lack of funding.

Waterloo Interfaith Supportive Housing, a non-profit group made up of various faith groups aiming to increase the level of affordable housing in the city, hoped to turn the Bridgeport Lofts into housing for the city’s homeless who currently seek shelter from the local Out of the Cold program, the only such program available in Waterloo.

Reading this article, the Journalists for Human Rights (JHR) Chapter at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, decided to investigate the state of housing in the city. What they found was troubling — it seems that while the neighbouring city of Kitchener is able to provide for their homeless, the city of Waterloo is failing miserably, causing their homeless and low-income residents to move south.

The cities of Kitchener and Waterloo are interconnected: their city boundary is noticed only by those observant enough to find the small signs that exist at the side of main roads. The Region of Waterloo, which includes the two cities, plus the nearby City of Cambridge, controls many of their services. However, they are still separate cities with separate municipal governments, and one city has certainly fallen behind the other when it comes to providing for those who fall below the poverty line.

“Waterloo doesn’t have the facilities to help the homeless,” says Brice Balmer, the Chaplaincy Director at the House of Friendship in Kitchener, Ontario. The House of Friendship is a non-profit Christian organization that aids low-income residents through various social service programs. “There [are] many things the City of Waterloo could do. Basically, affordable housing is in the [Cities] of Kitchener and Cambridge.”

Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including âe¦ housing âe¦ and necessary social services.” Simply because services exist in Kitchener does not absolve the City of Waterloo from the responsibility to provide adequate housing and services for homeless and low-income residents as well.

“You want to talk about a human rights issue,” Balmer exclaims, “well, the issue is, ‘why doesn’t Waterloo have affordable housing for all economic classes?’ and [the City] would say, ‘We don’t have housing for the poor because we have all this student housing’.”

It is true that the City of Waterloo is home to two major universities, as well as a main campus of Conestoga College, and thus has poured extensive effort into making sure that all students are accommodated for housing. Yet having all those students, as well as being named “One of the Top 7 Intelligent Communities in the World” does not necessitate that there be no place for lower income residents.

“There is a whole attitude,” Balmer continues, “and I don’t want to say it’s held by all people, but there is an attitude âe¦ that Waterloo is an educated, learned, rich city.”

Alison Mugford from Reaching Our Outdoor Friends (ROOF) concurs. “I don’t think the City of Waterloo is offering services in Waterloo for homeless individuals. Therefore, the results being that the homeless individuals make their way down to Kitchener.

“I feel the perception in Waterloo is that they probably don’t see it as a problem,” Mugford says. “I think they like that [homelessness] is not really as visible as it is down [in Kitchener].”

City culture aside, there is a greater barrier causing inadequate housing services in Waterloo — the provincial and federal governments. Brice Balmer of the House of Friendship blames changes in provincial legislation over the past decade, with regards to welfare regulations, minimum wage, employment insurance, guidelines for the services provided, and other government safeguards against low income for the increasing number of perpetually homeless residents they now encounter.

Furthermore, when Waterloo Interfaith Supportive Housing wished to purchase the Bridgeport Lofts building, it was hoping to receive a grant as a part of the federal homelessness program. The funding was denied.

Although Waterloo Interfaith Supportive Housing was unavailable for comment at the time of this article, in The Record, past-president Dick Tyssen mentions that the government creates a catch-22 situation for organizations attempting to make changes in housing — money is needed in order for organizations to procure a building, but the government requires a building before they give funding.

There is, however, still hope for change. The Waterloo Interfaith Supportive Housing group is still looking for an appropriate building to renovate, and Balmer states that there is work being done by the House of Friendship as well.

“We’ve tried to get an outreach worker up in Waterloo [who] is sponsored by the Waterloo Business Association and the City of Waterloo âe¦ it isn’t fully implemented yet, but there now are some people who are starting to work more creatively in Waterloo to handle the [homeless and low-income housing] situation.”