FAQs

This facility helps to ensure that people experiencing homelessness have access to safe, temporary overnight accommodations that support their basic needs while they are supported to find and transition to permanent housing.  

During their stay, community members are supported to develop an Individualized Housing Plan that will help them move forward on their journey towards permanent housing.  

In response to feedback from individuals with lived experience, the King Street Shelter supports all gender identities, couples, and pets. 

Operated by The Working Centre, the King Street site provides urgently needed shelter services.  

In September 2023, we estimated that chronic homelessness (homelessness that lasts for more than six months) has been increasing at a rate of 28 per cent year-over-year since 2020. If growth continues at this rate, it will triple by 2028.  

As of February 2024, we estimate that 558 individuals are experiencing chronic homelessness in Waterloo Region. 

The Point in Time count is a nationally coordinated count of people experiencing homelessness and is intended to identify how many individuals and families in a community experience homelessness at any given time, including in shelters, transitional housing and on the streets. 

We will conduct the next Point in Time (PiT) count in fall 2024. The process will count all people experiencing homelessness on a particular night, including those in shelter, people in encampments, and people experiencing hidden homelessness (people who live temporarily with friends, family or strangers or in temporary accommodations with no long-term housing security). 

Two Peer Outreach Workers from the WINS program (Working to Improve Neighbourhood Safety) attend the King Street Shelter area once a week for needle sweeps. (If two of the Peer Outreach Workers are not able to attend on the same day, they attend twice that week with one peer worker each day.) 

In addition, the City of Kitchener Trail Bike team proactively patrols all parks and trails throughout the City. They also reactively respond to complaints called into the police or the City of Kitchener’s Corporate Contact Centre.   

The Trail Bike team has been proactively patrolling both the Rockway and Eastwood Neighbourhoods 2-3 times a day with a focus on park areas to ensure there are no unsafe conditions including needles or drug paraphernalia, garbage, inappropriate behaviour, etc. If garbage or an accumulation of waste is observed, staff will create a work order for the sanitation team to remove the items.   

If you observe a needle or any unsafe condition, we encourage you to report the concern to the City of Kitchener Corporate Contact Centre at 519-741-2345 who will promptly dispatch staff to respond. 

Homelessness is not a single-issue problem.  

Homelessness is an equity and health issue. Homelessness is not the result of people’s choices or failings. It is the result of systemic and policy failures. People experience loss, trauma and displacement as the result.   

Homelessness is usually the result of a number of factors, rather than a single cause. It’s important to understand the complexities to create holistic solutions.  

Poverty 

The effects of poverty are devastating. Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program do not provide a basic living income. With the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment currently $1,658 in Waterloo Region, someone receiving $700 a month cannot make ends meet. Household income needs to be more than $75,000 per year to afford the rental market. 

Traumatic life events  

Job loss, a house fire, or the end of a relationship can result in the loss of stable housing. Family violence and abuse also create situations where individuals have no choice but to leave.  

Mental health 

In the mid-1960s, governments began to dismantle the mental health system, closing psychiatric hospitals. The idea was that with the introduction of new medications, people could live on their own in the community. But, without a network of community-based supports, many people have suffered and are part of the numbers today who experience long-term homelessness. 

Racism  

Systemic racism runs throughout our society. The legacies of colonialism have given rise to our current systems that discriminate. According to Statistics Canada, Indigenous households are almost three times as likely to have experienced homelessness when compared with the total population.  

Addictions 

Addictions are also a contributing factor, though they may arise because of the stress and insecurity that individuals experience when they do not have a home.  

On top of these factors, many individuals face additional marginalization if they identify with one or more of the following: 2SLGBTQIA+; Indigenous individuals including First Nations, Métis and Inuit; those living in rural areas; those with disabilities, including physical and neurocognitive disabilities; racialized communities; refugees and asylum seekers; seniors; veterans; women and youth.  

Understanding that there are distinct challenges for people with different identities will help improve people-focused solutions to ending experiences of homelessness. 

If you would like to speak to a member of the Region of Waterloo Housing team, please call 519-575-4400, ext. 5008 or email interimhousingsolutions@regionofwaterloo.ca 

For shelter operations, please contact King Street Emergency Shelter staff at (519) 502-3354.