Our City
Kitchener, like many other cities in Ontario, is experiencing a housing crisis – soaring prices and extremely limited options. Mortgages and rental costs have sky-rocketed compared to pre-pandemic prices, driving the percentage of income paid for housing up to 50% and beyond for even middle-income earners. This has resulted in drastic increases in the number of homeless people and those forced to use food banks.
A new Point in Time homelessness count conducted in October 2024 found that 2,371 people were experiencing homelessness in Waterloo Region, compared to 1,085 in 2021 (More than 2,300 people homeless in Waterloo Region, point-in-time report finds, CTV News, November 26, 2024).
At the same time, Waterloo Region Food Bank reports that in 2024, they faced the highest demand for food assistance in their 40-year history. One in eight households in the Region needed food support. To put this into perspective, in 2023 it was one in 10 households, in 2022 it was one in 14, and in 2021, it was one in 20 (The Food Bank of Waterloo Region).
Key Factors
People are competing for the same few homes, driving up costs. This housing supply problem is often emphasized as the main cause of the housing crisis. But supply isn’t the only issue, and it may not even be the biggest (Ontario's Housing Crisis Explained School of Cities, 2022).
Housing is being treated as a commodity to be bought and sold for profit, leading rich multi-property owners and speculators to outcompete first-time home buyers.
Wages aren’t keeping up with housing. Houses are about three hundred percent more expensive now than in the 1990s, while the median income has basically stayed the same. In today’s dollars, it would take someone earning $75,000/year about 14 years of saving 10% to buy a house at $600,000, if they wanted their mortgage payments to be affordable (30% of income).
In February 2025, the Waterloo Region Record ("Waterloo Region rental market expected to stabilize,") reported that the average asking rent for all residential property types had actually dropped though both Kitchener and Waterloo remained on the list of most expensive cities in Canada. Rents in Waterloo have gone down one per cent from 2024 while in Kitchener there was a five per cent decrease year-over-year. Despite these declines, average rents in Canada are still 5.2 per cent higher that two years earlier and 16.9 per cent higher than pre-pandemic levels (CTV News/Canadian Press, March 10, 2025). The politics of tariffs adds a whole new level of uncertainty to the situation.
The lack of affordable housing units is also a part of the problem. Social housing construction has mostly stalled since the 90s, when the federal government stopped investing in social housing projects. We now have a 30-year deficit in non-market housing; the people paying the heaviest price are those who are homeless and barely surviving on the margins.
Our Goals
• Advocate for municipal policies and practices that provide for equitable access to affordable housing for households of all income levels, sizes, and abilities
• Grow and harness public support for improved access to affordable housing
• Equip residents with information, evidence and tools to effectively participate in Council’s decision making
The degree to which downtown neighbourhoods will be affordable depends on efforts of individuals, groups, City planners and Kitchener Council. We hope that you can work with us to advocate for affordable housing so that everyone can access housing that meets their needs. The links below can help us understand our current situation and how to achieve our goals.
Resources
The responsibility for the various levels of housing is divided between the Region of Waterloo and the City of Kitchener.
It is the Region’s role to administer and fund subsidized housing for individuals, families and seniors with low-to moderate-incomes. Provincial housing service legislation identifies the Region as the Service System Manager responsible for housing and homelessness issues.
Region of Waterloo Information
Building Better Futures: 2,500 Homes in 5 Years
The goal of the first phase of the plan has been exceeded by 207 new homes with Kitchener providing the lion’s share. The new target is to create or preserve (with “preserve” being the operative term) 3,500 affordable homes by the end of 2029, with 2,100 (60%) dedicated to households with very-low-to-low income. The Region defines affordability as housing costs being 30% or less of household income.
The second phase includes a number of elements:
Lands for Affordable Housing: using land to develop affordable housing, including existing Waterloo Region Housing (WRH) properties
Funding and Resources: incentivizing affordable housing development and increasing community capacity
Preserve Affordable Housing: preserving units of existing community and affordable housing
Community Collaboration: working alongside community partners, area municipal partners, and cross-departmental teams to realize this vision
Policy and Advocacy: advocating for new policies and funding to support new affordable housing and the preservation of existing affordable housing
Community Access Housing Centre (Information on subsidized housing)
Emergency Shelters and Transitional Housing
Incentives to Create Affordable Housing
Waterloo Region Master Housing Plan
City of Kitchener Information
Renting in Kitchener The City of Kitchener website page provides important information starting with a summation of what renters need to know followed by specifics such as the Residential Tenancies Act; Landlord and Tenant Board; Evictions, Online eviction survey; Property standards and Fire inspections.
Waterloo Region ACORN Another provider of tenant support is. ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) is a nation-wide group membership-based community union advocating for social and economic justice for low- and moderate-income tenants. They have over 177,000 members in 30 neighbourhood chapters in 10 regions across 6 provinces. Currently their most pressing issue is renovictions. Kitchener City staff will bring a renoviction bylaw report back to Council for consideration at the June 2, 2025 Planning and Strategic Initiatives Committee meeting.
The City of Kitchener has two bylaws which address the preservation of existing affordable housing units being threatened by development and the provision of new affordable units in new developments along the Ion corridor.
Rental Replacement Bylaw; Rental Replacement Guidelines
As of January 2026, Inclusionary Zoning will require developers to set aside a minimum percentage of affordable units in a new development of 10 units or more. Provincial regulations limit Inclusionary Zoning to Major Transit Station Areas. In Waterloo Region, these MTSAs are located along the ION corridor and are part of the Growing Together policy framework setup to address the housing crisis. As of January 2026, Inclusionary Zoning will require developers to set aside a minimum percentage of affordable units in a new development of 10 units or more within 1 km of MTSAs. To date Inclusionary Zoning has implemented in Growing Together West MTSAs only.
Website of the City of Kitchener's Housing for All
Housing for All: A blueprint for a more caring community is an advisory committee driven project which was created to address affordable housing in Kitchener and published in December 2020.
On March 28, 2025, City staff reported the completion or near-completion of all 44 of the actions outlined in the Housing for All strategy. This is considered a “significant milestone in the City of Kitchener’s ongoing efforts to ensure that every resident has a home to call their own”. It is also considered a “key early component in the City’s broader Building Kitchener Together initiative”.
Building Kitchener Together is a group of initiatives that have been supported by the federal and provincial governments to advance the Housing for All strategy and to provide “a boost to the housing supply across the continuum”.
Community Supports
Waterloo Region Community Legal Services
Social Development Centre Waterloo Region