We have been hearing about the need for a peer-outreach supports for tenants in Waterloo Region for many years. Please read the article from February 10, 2022 about gaps in enforcement of tenant's rights in Waterloo Region. Thanks to the funding from the United Way Waterloo Region Communities, direct peer support is now available to all tenants of Kitchener-Waterloo and Cambridge. Building on the expertise of the two outreach workers, Hollee George in KW and Michelle Knight in Cambridge, the program will also focus on 2SLGBTQ+, BIPOC, immigrants, refugees & low-income renter households. The research and practice on displacement in Kitchener-Waterloo (SDCWR, 2021) identifies a range of tenant experience and landlord practices from discrimination to renovictions as forcible moving and un-homing of the tenants in Waterloo Region, we will be responding to the following: 

• to at risk of or in the process of being evicted legally or illegally
• to at risk of or experiencing legal or illegal rent increases (Above Guideline Rent Increase)
• to at risk of or experiencing unsafe or unaffordable housing
• to at risk of or experiencing homophobia, transphobia or racism in a landlord tenant relationship.

Why We Need Peer Based Eviction Prevention Program? 
October 2021 - March 2022 Report - trends, challenges, successes, learning.
April 2022 - October2022 Report - trends, evolution, case studies 

For more information, please contact:

Hollee George, hollee.george@waterlooregion.org & 226-507-8965 or 519-579-3800 ext. 7
Michelle Knight, michelle.knight@waterlooregion.org & 226-507-8961 or 519-579-3800 ext. 8
Jenaya Nixon, jenaya.nixon@waterlooregio.org & 519-579-3800 ext. 9

Additional Resources

• Evictions for Renovation Handout 2022
• Housing during COVID-19 from Community Legal Education Ontario.
• Rental Housing Offences
• Navigate Tribunals Ontario

People Helping People

• Tenant support through advocacy, intervention, mediation, negotiation and developing alternatives plans to eviction and loss of housing.
• Listen and collect tenant’s rental stories to validate their experiences.
• Provide timely access to accurate information based on the needs of the tenant in person, printed material, online material (created by both SDCWR and other tenant serving organizations) 
• Make warm community partner referrals to support tenants whose needs are outside of our purview. 
• Strategies in Eviction Prevention
• Mapping residences where tenants are at risk of or experiencing eviction or displacement.
• Information to be cross shared with the SDC Mapping Displacement Project.
• New locations to be collected and prepared for geocoding and further updates to the Map of Displacement in Waterloo Region.
• Empowering tenants to document their conflict experience with landlords and/or neighbours.
• Assist community members as they navigate their Landlord Tenant process.
• Provide safe, private access to space and technology for tenants to attend their scheduled Landlord Tenant Board hearing in all three cities. 
• Community visiting - buildings where tenants live for tenant support and documentation of housing concerns.
• We take a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellness approach to community service.
• Professional discretion to identify where a relevant legal, social, economic or health related problem is at present and what, in consultation with the community member, action needs to occur to remedy the presenting problem.
• Create an online following of community members through social media for the sharing and gathering of information (Eviction Prevention KW and Cambridge Facebook pages)