Tiny homes on Erbs Road a 'stepping stone' to secure stable housing, says resident
A motion requesting a 'wind down plan' for the sanctioned encampment was struck down by council
Justin Barbuto was living in a tent at a Cambridge encampment at 150 Main Street when he heard about the regional tiny home project on the outskirts of Waterloo. A year and a half later, he and his girlfriend secured spots at the Erbs Road hybrid shelter.
Barbuto said the value he gets from his new home at 1001 Erbs Rd. trumps that of his previous home in the Cambridge park, particularly when it comes to finding stable housing.
"Having the tiny home, I guess, will help us get to that next step because it's a transitional stepping stone to get us into affordable housing much faster versus an encampment," he said.
"An encampment basically restricts you from having more resources come in and help you out on a day-to-day basis."
He compares the size of his tiny home to "your average parking spot." It is outfitted with a double bed, desk, fridge, air conditioner and baseboard heater. There are 50 of them in total at the Erbs Road location.
The success of this project has been questioned by Wilmot Mayor Natasha Salonen, who had put a motion forward at the community and health services committee meeting on Tuesday asking staff to outline their "wind down plan" for the project at its current location. The project had a two-year time limit on it.
However, the encampment has only been in operation for less than a year, and some councillors felt it was too soon for the motion, so it failed to pass.
Barbuto said that another benefit of having a tiny home versus a tent is that it's much easier to stay warm, particularly during the cold weather snap the region is facing. When he was at the Cambridge encampment Barbuto would use propane tanks to power his heat source, but that would only last six hours and cost him $20 a time.
"It's great that we have these tiny homes because of the weather," Barbuto said. "In the past … six and a half hours of low heat inside of a tent, you pretty much got to stay bundled up the entire evening."
"As long as you don't open up the tent doors too much you can make it through the night quite easily, but obviously these tiny homes [are] a big step up. A lot more warmth, that's for sure."
'Very limited housing options'
The Working Centre in Kitchener operates the sanctioned encampment on behalf of the region, and its co-founder Joe Mancini believes that the stability it offers is a "starting point" for those looking for stable housing beyond the project.
"The main problem, of course, is that there are very limited housing options," he said. "The only kind of housing option is social housing and some kind of subsidized rent situation. Those are not easy to come by."
"We have lots of housing, it's just that the kind of housing — it's become expensive, it costs more than what an individual on social assistance even gets in their cheque so these are giant social issues and all we're doing is putting a band aid on it by at least providing a temporary space for people, but society has a much bigger challenge to actually open up spaces, open up housing, build housing."
Mancini explained that it's not as simple as people going out and getting a job — that it may be a big feat for some.
"There's way more deeper social factors, such as mental health issues, physical disabilities, workplace injuries, criminal records that mean you can't get work — there's all kinds of reasons why individuals find themselves isolated without being able to access the labour market," he said.
Regional staff will be drafting a report regarding the encampment and the program they're offering, but there is no release date for that yet.
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