Social Development Centre Waterloo Region

SDC Media Release on A Better Tent City (June 25, 2026)

The Social Development Centre is deeply concerned about efforts that are underway at the Region of Waterloo to bring A Better Tent City into the structure and regulations of the shelter system.

The structural changes being considered to A Better Tent City are extreme and will hamstring a liberative, trailblazing space that has been filling a crucial gap in Waterloo Region's housing system for 6 years now.

SDC is thus calling on the Region of Waterloo to continue the bottom-up, community-driven legacy of A Better Tent City by re-instating the involvement of residents and the program's co-founder, Nadine Green, in all operations and key decision-making moving forward.

Read the full media release

SDC Media Release on Safe Tenting (June 16, 2026)

In light of Waterloo Regional Council's impending response to Justice Michael Gibson's court ruling in relation to the 100 Vic encampment in Kitchener, SDC is back at Council on June 16, 2026 to call for a safe tenting framework.

A safe tenting framework is not a relief from homelessness. Living in a tent is still substandard shelter. However, it is a relief from supportlessness. It allows people to access a base level of service, to manage their survival and dignity. It gives them a place to legally exist. It is the option of last resort.

Read the full media release

You're Invited: Annual General Meeting

On behalf of the Board of Directors, we cordially invite you to our Annual General Meeting. Join us for highlights from the 2025-26 year, and hear directly from our Board about the priorities that will be driving our work in the months to come.

Thursday, June 18, 2026
6:30pm (doors open at 6pm)
23 Water St. N (enter from Duke St.)
Light refreshments will be served

To join the meeting virtually: please email us at board@waterlooregion.org for the Zoom link.

We look forward to seeing you on the 18th! And as always, we extend our sincere thanks to all of you who continue to be a part of our work and the SDC community.

Teach-in: How to Start a Tenant Association

If you’re curious or ready to take a new step into organizing with tenants in your building or neighbourhood, this teach-in is for you! Co-led by Meg Walker (Tenant Organizing Lead at SDC) and Lynn Intini (Community Organizer), this hands-on workshop will teach you the very first steps on how to start a tenant association.

NEW DATE: April 23 | 6:30pm - 8:00pm
23 Water St. N (enter from Duke St.), Kitchener
All experiences and abilities welcome
A light dinner will be provided
RSVP at tinyurl.com/4vkfhd6e

This event is the latest in a housing justice series presented in collaboration with Theorypractice Lab and Textile (formerly Textile Magazine) with funding from the University of Waterloo Faculty of Health EDI-AR Seed Fund. To view or download the event poster, please click on the image above.

CivicHub Lunch Goes Mobile in March

In a change-up to the monthly lunches hosted at the SDC each month, CivicHub's March event was hosted as a Community Iftar in Waterloo's Sunnydale Community.

The event took place on March 11, 2026 with the generous support of Adventure4Change, who provided the venue and valuable volunteer support, and 4 local businesses that generously sponsored the buffet dinner: OnCoal (Waterloo), Aunty's Kitchener (Waterloo), Roshmoh Indo-Canadian Kitchener + Bar (Kitchener), and Pasha BBQ (Kitchener).

While our Eviction Prevention team continues to advocate and organize alongside tenants in Sunnydale, it was a joy to gather with the broader community for an evening of music, gratitude, and laughter. To all the individuals, groups, and businesses who came together to make this beautiful event possible, we are tremendously grateful.

A Conversation about "The Tenant Class" with Ricardo Tranjan

On March 3, 2026, SDC's Meg Walker, Tenant Organizing Lead in our Eviction Prevention Program, sat down for a conversation with Ricardo Tranjan, Senior Researcher at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).

Ricardo's book, “The Tenant Class,” argues our housing crisis is a class struggle most keenly understood, not by policymakers or academics, but by the tenant organizers fighting on the front lines to keep people housed.

Ahead of the event, Meg shared that "Ricardo's book is in dialogue with the necessary and ongoing movement building for tenant rights and power. What resonated for me about the book is that we are facing a crisis rooted in settler colonialism. Who merits housing? Who benefits from the land we're on?"

Keep reading for some of our favourite quotes and reflections from the night...

A Teach-in on Bill 60 and Tenant Rights

EP Frontline Stories (tenant in hospital) SDC was thrilled to be invited by the University of Waterloo's Theorypractice Lab and Textile (formerly Textile Magazine) to offer a virtual teach-in on Bill 60 and tenant rights on February 25, 2026.

For years, evictions have been happening in ways that disproportionately affect vulnerable people. The passing of Bill 60 in the provincial legislature in Nov 2025 has weakened rental protections further, putting even more tenants at risk. It has therefore become imperative that both current and prospective renters become aware of the impacts Bill 60 could have on their tenancy, their ability to raise issues at the Landlord Tenant Board, and their prospects for fighting a bad-faith eviction.

This teach-in was organized by Theorypractice Lab, Textile, and SDC as part of a series of events aimed at providing education on tenant rights and housing justice. Click on "Read More" to see our upcoming events.

SDC Presents Public Camping Petition to Regional Council

Safe Tenting Delegation (Feb 10, 2026) Recap 1 On February 10, 2026 we delegated to the Region of Waterloo’s Community & Health Services Committee about our petition on public camping.

As stated by David Alton, Facilitator of Lived Expertise at SDC, "governments are not building housing fast enough. And there's many barriers to building housing quickly. But we still have human rights obligations." In the current reality, where housing and shelter options are neither adequate nor accessible to hundreds of the 2300+ people experiencing homelessness in Waterloo Region, public camping offers an option of last resort.

Keep reading for a recap of background facts and figures, how safe tenting offers an option of last resort, the overwhelming support our petition received from community, our requests to Council, and next steps in this campaign.

A Documentary Informed by Our Research with UWaterloo

Over the past 8 years, SDC has been privileged to partner with Dr. Brian Doucet from the University of Waterloo on a number of research projects on homelessness and displacement. On January 26, we will be partnering with UWaterloo once more for a free screening of Dr. Doucet's new documentary, Thinking Beyond the Market: A Film About Genuinely Affordable Housing.

6:30pm - doors open
7:00pm - film screening
8:30pm - panel discussion and Q&A with Dr. Brian Doucet

The film features more than 30 interviews with planners, policymakers developers, housing advocates, residents, and politicians. It inspires us to think about the root causes of the housing crisis and the transformative solutions hiding in plain sight.

Join our Q&A on Homelessness & Encampments

Given the alarming pace at which homelessness is increasing, and the mismatch between current needs and available resources, homeless encampments are on course to persist - and potentially even multiply - in our communities.

What are the tools we need to navigate this forecasted reality? What constrains our options, and where are there opportunities to do things differently?

On January 21, 2026 (6-8pm), bring your questions to a candid Q&A with:

The City of Kitchener Bylaw Enforcement Team
Waterloo Region Community Legal Services
A Lived Expert from SDCWR
Sanguen Health Centre

RSVP today: tinyurl.com/uz56c3tn
Click on the image above for a PDF version of the event poster.