Residents invited to tour the region's new outdoor shelter

The new tiny home shelter space at1001 Erbs Road is just a couple steps away from opening.

It looks vastly different than it did just a few months ago, when it was just an empty plot of land full of wild shrubs.

Media were invited to tour the mostly-finished shelter space on April 20.

WATCH| Fifty new steel shelters will open soon in Waterloo region

Take a tour of the region's new tiny shelter spaces on Erbs Road

1 year ago

Duration 1:33

The new outdoor shelter at 1001 Erbs Road is almost ready.When it does open, it will be run by The Working Centre, a Kitchener nonprofit that offers support for the region's homeless population. The region has said that services for things like addictions and mental health will be available to residents too.Construction crews were drilling in the final few screws when CBC K-W's Aastha Shetty dropped by for a media tour.

Tours for the general public will begin on Tuesday, April 25 from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Those who would like to attend must register in advance on the EngageWR website.

Steel shelters can be moved

Matthew Lubberts is the owner of Housing Now, the construction company building the new encampment.

He saidthese new tiny homes have a unique feature they come attached with a steel loop on the roof that makes them easier to move.

"We thought it was important to make something that was relatively easy to move," Lubberts said. "So that if there was something that had to be moved eitherbecause ofseasons or because of political pressure ... this is something that could be potentially moved."

The shelter space at 1001 Erbs Road has takenlessons from A Better Tent City (ABTC), a similar encampment of 42 tiny homes on Waterloo Region District School Board land near Highway 8. The ErbsRd.encampment will accommodate 50 people in tiny homes of about10 square meters in size.

Lubberts said unlike the tiny homes at ABTC, the tiny homes at the region's outdoor shelter were built using steel.

"But I do believe they're mostly wood sheds there [at ABTC]," he said. "So they're susceptible to mould, rot,a few other things like that."

Addressing criticism

After the location of the new outdoor shelter was announced, some people criticised the region for choosing to build it so close to the landfill.

Peter Sweeney, the commissioner of community services at the Region of Waterloo, said the location was chosen to help get the project up and running faster.

"We made a conscious decision ... to choose a location that was outside of the downtown core," he said."These fifty beds represent less than 10 per centof the shelter and transitional housing stock in Waterloo region. The rest of the 90 per cent are all in the core. We felt it was important to alleviate some of that pressure andto do that on regional land became the obvious location."

When asked to address concerns from neighbours about a potential increase in the number ofrats, Sweeney said the area is unlikely to see an infestation.

"My understanding is that that situation occurs when you have unorganized, unsupervised, unsanctioned and unsafe environments. The design of not only these buildings but of this site is to be safe and clean," he said. "So we don't expect those issues to arise."

Sweeney said there are alsoplans to rectify the lack of transit in the area.

"We are building into the operational plan and the budget for The Working Centre to provide transportation for everybody that chooses to live here. They're going to set up a schedule and that will be determined by what the actual needs are," he said.

"Once folks arrive here and start living here, we'll get a sense of what kind of access they want and need and we'll provide it and we'll learn from this."

He said staff will be monitoring closely to see where needs may arise.

"I think we're trying to do everything we can to support the people and letting some of the specifics around logistics reveal themselves for the people who are actually going to need those services and are going to choose to live here, rather than trying to make all of those decisions for folks ahead of time," Sweeney said.

"The key here for me is that all things considered, this is mostly right."