The one issue that arguably defined 2023 in Waterloo region was the homelessness crisis.
As staff at the city and region struggled to find solutions to the problem that struck a balance between compassion and community safety, neighbours of an encampment at 150 Main St. said they'd had enough.
When the region opened a hybrid shelter in Waterloo in April, and increased capacity at its other shelters, not everyone living rough agreed to make the transition when their specific needs couldn't be accommodated.
Many couldn't understand why anyone would choose to live in a tent when given the option to move indoors.
Just before the region closed a makeshift encampment in the parking lot on its property at 150 Main St., we spoke to a former resident of the site to shed some light on the people who lived there.
Here is that story:
As Amanda Speed walks into the parking lot at 150 Main St. in Galt, she greets those puttering around outside their tents.
The residents used to be her neighbours when she had her 17-foot trailer parked up against the vacant lot next door that will soon be home to a new condo complex.
But more importantly, they remain her friends.
“You’re safe here,” Speed turned and said.
“It’s not what people think.”
There’s arguably been no hotter button topic in the city over the past year than the comings and goings of the encampment.
A Facebook group titled “Neighbourhood Watch Cambridge, Ontario” has documented many of the homelessness issues that are plaguing not only the people experiencing it, but the broader community who’s growing ever frustrated by the lack of security around the core.
A 25-year resident of the neighbourhood told CambridgeToday back in June that he no longer feels safe in his home.
“Since this encampment opened up about a year ago I've had a home invasion,” he said.
“This guy came into my house and started looking through all my stuff and scoping it out. After I asked him what he was doing, he ran and by the time I got outside he was gone. I don't go outside much. I don't want to go outside."
But even some of those issues aren’t always what they seem when they’re pinned on those living in the parking lot behind the social services building, Speed says.
“The second day I came here, I was plastered all over the Facebook group as someone who now lives in a camper on the property,” she said.
“They thought it was a joke. Do you know how many people drive by here every single day gawking? People apparently call it the Cambridge zoo. When they see the bins out here they yell things like ‘you belong in the trash.’”
Heightened safety measures have been taken in an attempt to ease the tension. Construction style barricades and pylons block off the parking lot at night to limit entry and extra security has been put in place.
When reached for comment, the region, which owns the land the encampment is on, confirmed access to the parking lot was restricted overnight.
Fencing was initially erected around the tents back in September and Speed says as recently as a couple months ago a car drove into it, prompting more to be done.
“It doesn’t make them feel any safer,” she said of the barricades.
“The problem is people come here and get high that don’t live here. They destroy the place and that’s what the neighbourhood sees and records. That’s the issue, that’s what’s making these people look bad. The residents aren’t the problem.”
Speed isn’t oblivious to what’s going on and says she totally understands the frustration of nearby residents. As a mother herself who works, she gets it.
“I completely understand,” she said.