Right to Housing platform

We hosted the Right to Housing Townhall on July 25th, 2026 at the Chandler Mowat Community Centre which led to the creation of the following platform. I am committing to championing these ideas. For them to come to fruition depends upon your support.

The 2019 National Housing Strategy Act "recognizes that the right to adequate housing is a fundamental human right affirmed in international law" (Read Act here)

According to the Canadian Human RIghts Commission all residents of Kitchener shall have access to housing that is:

• secure
• affordable
• habitable
• provide basic services
• in a location that is close to employment and social services
• accessible
• culturally appropriate

(Read More)

The housing crisis is far more reaching than what is currently being reported. Due to high rents and mortgage rates almost all renters and many owners are now experiencing housing precarity. We are also seeing new layers of homeless: tenureless, shelterless, and supportless. The City has a responsibility to supply enough options that stabilizes this system and helps people recover and heal.

Canada’s housing system is a legacy of the harms of colonization and imperialism. Today it looks like structured inequality and a hierarchy of rising housing precarity and harm. While it is tough to witness, the fact that people are dying systemically from a lack of housing means we should start viewing our housing system through the lens of social murder and social apartheid.​

Proposed interventions to disrupt this hierarchy and address inequality, precarity, and homelessness:

Investor Level Interventions

The investor class is driving the financialization of housing where more and more of the housing stock is being treated as an asset rather than a shelter from the elements.

1) Leverage Underused Land
Launch a vacancy tax and acquisition strategy to turn underused land(ie. vacant buildings, parking lots, brownfield sites, golf courses) into sites for land leasing and social housing.

2) Multiply Social Housing Construction
Multiply Kitchener Housing and Region of Waterloo Housing stock and expand non-market partnerships to enable new co-ops, affordable family housing, and rent-geared to income options. 

3) Conduct Equitable Zoning Review
Update zoning and design guidelines to encourage small developers across the city and ease price spikes on small businesses and low income communities. Update heritage policies to better consider interior heritage, accessibility, and low income histories to mitigate neglect/demolition.

4) Set Up Public Financing and Insurance Programs
Work around provincial legislation to set up infrastructure to facilitate greater non-market housing construction. Provide funding and insurance coverage for land trusts and community level housing projects.

Owner Level Interventions

The owner class is increasingly finding themselves house poor, where they own their home but mortgage payments and debt keep them precarious. Senior women are particularly precarious.

5) Launch Age In Place Programming
Work with aging residents to keep them housed in their neighbourhoods as they age. Initiatives available could include secondary suites or redeveloping single family homes into missing middle accessible and affordable seniors housing.

6) Explore Property Tax Reform
Explore changes to property tax code to incorporate progressive taxation, targeting multiple properties, and removing loopholes. Make visible how much of the tax levy is due to federal and provincial neglect through tax bills.

Renter Level Interventions

The renter class is experiencing increasing precarity from evictions, high rents, & unsafe housing.
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7) Consolidate Tenant Rights Hub
Bring together municipal and third party tenant supports into a common accessible location and expand funding. Supports include: rent bank, property standards, eviction prevention, legal aid, tenant organizing, translation services, dignified hoarding support, and crisis mental health support for sheriff evictions. 

8) Require Landlord Licensing/Rent Registry
Bring landlords and tenants into formal relationship with the city to foster stronger education, property standards, and oversight. Leverage full property standards, renovictions, and rental replacement toolkit to ensure housing is adequate.

9) Pass Vertical Communities Bylaw
Kitchener has growing multi-residential buildings that need support to build community and connectivity through things like bicycle parking, annual general meetings, notice boards, compost programming, and community gardens. Hire community liaisons to help build capacity to navigate conflict and diversity.​

tenureless level interventions

The tenureless class are people paying rent for shelter but who are experiencing a level of precarity that classifies them as hidden homeless.

10) Prioritize Family Housing
The condo boom of the past decade has left Kitchener with a glut of investor oriented smaller units. We need units that are appropriate and affordable for families with children, grandparents, and other relationships.

11) Enable Tenant Legitimization
Many people who are tenureless are applicable for tenants rights under the Residential Tenancy Act. They just need support from the City to navigate bureaucratic processes and assert adequate housing standards.

Service User Level Interventions

Service Users are the people experiencing homelessness conditions who are recognized by the state. They can be in transitional housing, emergency shelter, or in some encampments.

12) Establish Lived Expertise Oversight Body
Current metrics of success do not include service user satisfaction or agency in any meaningful way. The service system needs service user leadership and lived expertise consultation to centre care, not just flow for flows sake.

13) Define a Supportive Housing Standard
The lack of reliable operational funding and the lack of low barrier housing options are causing supportive housing to be turned into transitional housing, which removes stability and support. We need to champion supportive housing and expand funding options to keep people in trauma informed housing.

14) Monitor Rehousing Outcomes
Support often stops shortly after service users are placed back in market housing causing many people to fall back into homelessness. We need to get clear data on the stability of outflow and the barriers to long term housing success.

Supportless level interventions

A growing population of people are becoming supportless. These are people whose needs are not recognized by the state and are whose ability to survive is being threatened.

15) Expand 24/7 Low Barrier Hubs
Ensure there are always options for people seeking space and community amidst the housing, affordability, and climate crises. The warming centres and drop in programs are prime candidates to expad to 24/7 year-round support.

16) Ensure Safe Tenting Zones
​Review bylaws, zoning, and building codes so they are compliant with human rights law, dignity of risk, and an economy of care. Ensure public land is being used in ways that provide stability and healing.

17) Litigate the Right to Housing
Right now governments are attacking the charter right to life, when they should be enshrining the right to housing. The City shall leverage legal tools to champion our most fundamental rights.

18) Reallocate Police Surplus
Police surpluses are leading to cuts in the housing stability system including cancelling three social housing projects in 2026. We need to reclaim that funding for the sector trained for care not criminalization.