Social Development Centre Waterloo Region

Teach-in: How to Start a Tenant Association

Comms — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 21:29:01 +0000

If you’re curious or ready to take a new step into organizing with tenants in your building or neighbourhood, this teach-in is for you! Co-led by Meg Walker (Tenant Organizing Lead at SDC) and Lynn Intini (Community Organizer), this hands-on workshop will teach you the very first steps on how to start a tenant association.

NEW DATE: April 23 | 6:30pm - 8:00pm
23 Water St. N (enter from Duke St.), Kitchener
All experiences and abilities welcome
A light dinner will be provided
RSVP at tinyurl.com/4vkfhd6e

This event is the latest in a housing justice series presented in collaboration with Theorypractice Lab and Textile (formerly Textile Magazine) with funding from the University of Waterloo Faculty of Health EDI-AR Seed Fund. To view or download the event poster, please click on the image above.

We're Hiring: Executive Director

Comms — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 19:14:07 +0000

March 26, 2026 - Today marks the official start of SDC's search for our next Executive Director. This is a rare opportunity to support and amplify a passionate team advancing equity and addressing poverty and housing insecurity in our community.

Reporting to the Board of Directors, the Executive Director will provide organizational leadership and direction while creating the conditions for staff to do their best work.

Location: Kitchener, Ontario
Hours: Up to full-time hours (40hrs/week)
Compensation: $35-$40 per hour
Learn More & Apply at:
tinyurl.com/ExecutiveDirector-SDC

Know someone in your network whose values and expertise align with this role? Please consider sharing the job posting with them directly.

CivicHub Lunch Goes Mobile in March

Comms — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 18:41:19 +0000

In a change-up to the monthly lunches hosted at the SDC each month, CivicHub's March event was hosted as a Community Iftar in Waterloo's Sunnydale Community.

The event took place on March 11, 2026 with the generous support of Adventure4Change, who provided the venue and valuable volunteer support, and 4 local businesses that generously sponsored the buffet dinner: OnCoal (Waterloo), Aunty's Kitchener (Waterloo), Roshmoh Indo-Canadian Kitchener + Bar (Kitchener), and Pasha BBQ (Kitchener).

While our Eviction Prevention team continues to advocate and organize alongside tenants in Sunnydale, it was a joy to gather with the broader community for an evening of music, gratitude, and laughter. To all the individuals, groups, and businesses who came together to make this beautiful event possible, we are tremendously grateful.

A Conversation about "The Tenant Class" with Ricardo Tranjan

Comms — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 13:01:19 +0000

On March 3, 2026, SDC's Meg Walker, Tenant Organizing Lead in our Eviction Prevention Program, sat down for a conversation with Ricardo Tranjan, Senior Researcher at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).

Ricardo's book, “The Tenant Class,” argues our housing crisis is a class struggle most keenly understood, not by policymakers or academics, but by the tenant organizers fighting on the front lines to keep people housed.

Ahead of the event, Meg shared that "Ricardo's book is in dialogue with the necessary and ongoing movement building for tenant rights and power. What resonated for me about the book is that we are facing a crisis rooted in settler colonialism. Who merits housing? Who benefits from the land we're on?"

Keep reading for some of our favourite quotes and reflections from the night...

A huge thank you to everyone who attended, and to Richardo Tranjan, Theorypractice Lab (UWaterloo), and Textile (formerly Textile Magazine) for including us a collaborator on this event.

Want to learn more about tenant organizing? Contact us! 519-579-3800, x7
tenantorganizing@waterlooregion.org

Our next event in this collaborative series will be a teach-in on Tenant Organizing. Happening in-person on March 31, 2026 at 6:30pm. Details and registration link here.

A Teach-in on Bill 60 and Tenant Rights

Comms — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 12:44:21 +0000

SDC was thrilled to be invited by the University of Waterloo's Theorypractice Lab and Textile (formerly Textile Magazine) to offer a virtual teach-in on Bill 60 and tenant rights on February 25, 2026.

For years, evictions have been happening in ways that disproportionately affect vulnerable people. The passing of Bill 60 in the provincial legislature in Nov 2025 has weakened rental protections further, putting even more tenants at risk. It has therefore become imperative that both current and prospective renters become aware of the impacts Bill 60 could have on their tenancy, their ability to raise issues at the Landlord Tenant Board, and their prospects for fighting a bad-faith eviction.

This teach-in was organized by Theorypractice Lab, Textile, and SDC as part of a series of events aimed at providing education on tenant rights and housing justice. Click on "Read More" to see our upcoming events.

Upcoming events by SDC x TheoryPractice Lab

March 3, 2026 - a conversation between Meg Walker, Tenant Organizing Lead (SDC), and Ricardo Tranjan, Senior Researcher at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) and author of "The Tenant Class"
March 31, 2026 - a teach-in on tenant organizing by Meg Walker, Tenant Organizing Lead (SDC) and Lynn Intini (Community Organizer)

To check out social media storytelling series, "Stories from the Frontlines," find us on Instagram @sdc.wr and Facebook @sdcwr.

SDC Presents Public Camping Petition to Regional Council

Comms — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 11:41:00 +0000

On February 10, 2026 we delegated to the Region of Waterloo’s Community & Health Services Committee about our petition on public camping.

As stated by David Alton, Facilitator of Lived Expertise at SDC, "governments are not building housing fast enough. And there's many barriers to building housing quickly. But we still have human rights obligations." In the current reality, where housing and shelter options are neither adequate nor accessible to hundreds of the 2300+ people experiencing homelessness in Waterloo Region, public camping offers an option of last resort.

Keep reading for a recap of background facts and figures, how safe tenting offers an option of last resort, the overwhelming support our petition received from community, our requests to Council, and next steps in this campaign.

Delegation Recap: Click on each of the images below to enlarge them.

Vide Recording: You can also view a recording of our full delegation at: tinyurl.com/3fuxdcpa

A Documentary Informed by Our Research with UWaterloo

Comms — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 18:56:10 +0000

Over the past 8 years, SDC has been privileged to partner with Dr. Brian Doucet from the University of Waterloo on a number of research projects on homelessness and displacement. On January 26, we will be partnering with UWaterloo once more for a free screening of Dr. Doucet's new documentary, Thinking Beyond the Market: A Film About Genuinely Affordable Housing.

6:30pm - doors open
7:00pm - film screening
8:30pm - panel discussion and Q&A with Dr. Brian Doucet

The film features more than 30 interviews with planners, policymakers developers, housing advocates, residents, and politicians. It inspires us to think about the root causes of the housing crisis and the transformative solutions hiding in plain sight.

Join our Q&A on Homelessness & Encampments

Comms — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 17:28:24 +0000

Given the alarming pace at which homelessness is increasing, and the mismatch between current needs and available resources, homeless encampments are on course to persist - and potentially even multiply - in our communities.

What are the tools we need to navigate this forecasted reality? What constrains our options, and where are there opportunities to do things differently?

On January 21, 2026 (6-8pm), bring your questions to a candid Q&A with:

The City of Kitchener Bylaw Enforcement Team
Waterloo Region Community Legal Services
A Lived Expert from SDCWR
Sanguen Health Centre

RSVP today: tinyurl.com/uz56c3tn
Click on the image above for a PDF version of the event poster.

SDC Petition Calls for a Public Camping Bylaw

Comms — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 22:27:06 +0000

SDC is currently collecting signatures for a paper petition calling for a public camping bylaw in Waterloo Region. There currently isn't adequate support within Regional Council for such a bylaw, but that could change with your support!

How to Support Our Petition

Download a copy of the petition
Sign it and, if possible, ask others in your life to also add their signatures
Scan the signed copy and email it back to us at sdcwr@waterlooregion.org ASAP (our deadline to submit the petition to the Region of Waterloo is Friday, Feb 6, 2026!)

The need for public camping or "safe tenting zones" was brought into sharp focus by the Region's latest Point in Time Count, which found over 2,300 people experiencing homelessness in October 2024 - a number that far exceeds the 674 overnight shelter spaces available across the Region.

Click on the image to read SDC's David Alton explain our thoughts on public camping during a conversation on The Mike Farwell Show.

Holiday Closure & Planning Week

Comms — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 19:10:21 +0000

Our office will be closed December 22, 2025 - January 2, 2026, as our teams take some time to rest and reset - we hope you are able to do the same.

We will return to work on January 5, 2026, but please be patient with us as we will be dedicating most of that week to planning for the year ahead, and our responses may be slower as a result.

As we close out the year, we are filled with gratitude for all the ways you show your support for the work we do - whether you read our updates and newsletters, sign and share a petition, attend our events, donate, or even just occasionally click on a link. We thank you for walking this path with us. And we look forward to reconnecting in the new year - in hope, in struggle, and in solidarity.