Homelessness in Waterloo Region
The Waterloo Region Community Homelessness Network has been restructured and renamed the Waterloo Region Housing and Homelessness Umbrella Group. A website was launched in November 22, 2006. For current information about the activities of the HHUG go to www.hhug.ca
This homelessness webpage will maintain archival material from the Homelessness Network
Opening Doors
In June 1999, the Social Planning Councils of Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge and North Dumfries, and the Waterloo Region Wellington-Dufferin District Health Council released Understanding Homelessness in Waterloo Region: A Backgrounder. The Report was the culmination of over eight months of collaborative work guided by an advisory committee comprised of approximately 30 agency and community representatives. The Backgrounder provided a profile of homelessness including the number of individuals who experience homelessness in Waterloo Region and the underlying causes of homelessness. The Backgrounder proved to be a catalyst for action within the community.
Subsequent to the release of the Backgrounder, a number of interested members of the Housing Coalition (Appendix 1) formed an alliance with the intent of exploring ways to involve the community in identifying concrete solutions to homelessness. From this alliance, Opening Doors: A Community Action Forum was developed. The goal of the Forum was to harness the capacity and resources of the community to find local solutions for reducing and for preventing homelessness. Funding for the Forum was provided through grants from Human Resources Development Canada, the Region of Waterloo, Planning and Culture Department and the Independent Living Centre.
The Report represents a synthesis of ideas and discussions that took place at the Opening Doors Forum in February of 2000. In addition to providing a brief outline of the development and the structure of the Forum, the Report highlights solutions proposed during the Forum. It served as one of the pillars of the Community Plan.
Download the report (67K PDF file).