Waterloo — Ward 5
4 candidates responded
Eda Dede See responses
- Prioritize rapid acquisition or conversion of existing buildings
- Partner with non-profit and supportive housing providers
- Use publicly owned land for permanent or interim housing
- Establish and maintain clear minimum standards (sanitation, safety, outreach)
- Expand the hours and capacity of extreme-weather shelter protections beyond current levels
- Require that enforcement actions be linked to the availability of adequate indoor alternatives
- Establish clear regional leadership with coordinated municipal roles
- Actively advocate to the province for defined funding triggers and program supports
- Publish ongoing performance metrics (e.g. housing placements, shelter bed access)
Please describe one concrete policy, program, or decision you would support to address both encampments and permanent housing.candidate's own words
Sustain a housing first strategy, working together with the different levels of government for adequate funding.
Would you like to provide any additional context for your views on housing?candidate's own words
We need to be advocates for livable basic income.
Marty Rempel See responses
- Partner with non-profit and supportive housing providers
- Increase funding for deeply affordable and supportive housing
- More social services and care as a preventative as many homeless derive from mental health issues. Ever since major mental health institutions were closed and local facilities could never handle the discharge the goElse’s problem was compounded. It is largely a provincially creation of deriliction of duty
- Establish and maintain clear minimum standards (sanitation, safety, outreach)
- Expand the hours and capacity of extreme-weather shelter protections beyond current levels
- Require that enforcement actions be linked to the availability of adequate indoor alternatives
- Actively advocate to the province for defined funding triggers and program supports
- Provincial and federal funding for mental health facilities
Please describe one concrete policy, program, or decision you would support to address both encampments and permanent housing.candidate's own words
A coordinated approach utilizing all levels of government with integration of health care and social workers and nutritionists.The problem is too deep and long standing for one level of government to handle. Establishing housing provides security to mental health. Government provide funding to meet that goal.
Would you like to provide any additional context for your views on housing?candidate's own words
Governments to save money have shed responsibility for mental health while society tends to blame people for being Lazy and not willing to work. The homeless get stigmatized and forgotten. Society loses a sense of humanity as we trample over the rights and needs of the homeless. Some of the mental health facilities shut down had bad practices but now we have new treatments and drugs. Preventative treatment before people hit the streets is more compassionate and economical an approach. Open new institutions on a provincial level that provide community and treatment.
Scott Piatkowski See responses
- Prioritize rapid acquisition or conversion of existing buildings
- Partner with non-profit and supportive housing providers
- Use publicly owned land for permanent or interim housing
- Establish and maintain clear minimum standards (sanitation, safety, outreach)
- Expand the hours and capacity of extreme-weather shelter protections beyond current levels
- Require that enforcement actions be linked to the availability of adequate indoor alternatives
- Establish clear regional leadership with coordinated municipal roles
- Actively advocate to the province for defined funding triggers and program supports
- Publish ongoing performance metrics (e.g. housing placements, shelter bed access)
Please describe one concrete policy, program, or decision you would support to address both encampments and permanent housing.candidate's own words
I support collaborating with a local non-profit on the development of new affordable housing at 250 Lincoln Road (ideally three story townhomes), which was the condition when the property was purchased using funds from the federal Housing Accelerator Fund and the city's Affordable Housing Reserve.
Would you like to provide any additional context for your views on housing?candidate's own words
I have more than 30 years of direct experience in managing successful area non-profit housing co-ops and currently work for a national NGO that supports the community housing movement. Having a subject matter expert at the table when these issues are discussed would be a benefit to the city.
Victoria Richardson See responses
- Partner with non-profit and supportive housing providers
- Increase funding for deeply affordable and supportive housing
- Focus primarily on market housing to reduce overall pressure
- Establish and maintain clear minimum standards (sanitation, safety, outreach)
- Expand the hours and capacity of extreme-weather shelter protections beyond current levels
- Establish clear regional leadership with coordinated municipal roles
- Actively advocate to the province for defined funding triggers and program supports
- Publish ongoing performance metrics (e.g. housing placements, shelter bed access)
Please describe one concrete policy, program, or decision you would support to address both encampments and permanent housing.candidate's own words
Prioritize upstream approaches such as lobbying provincial government for funds for health, housing, and food access; increase ODSP; and explore the possibility of UBI
Would you like to provide any additional context for your views on housing?candidate's own words
Housing is a human right
On the ballot but have not responded to survey (1)
- Andrew Portwine
Full candidate list: CBC Waterloo Region election coverage ↗