Community Drug Strategies Implementation
Please describe one concrete policy, program, or decision you would support to address both encampments and permanent housing.
To address both encampments and permanent housing effectively, Kitchener must combine long-term municipal land management with immediate economic agency for unhoused residents. For long-term permanent housing, Kitchener should adopt the model of municipal land banking used successfully in Ulm, Germany. Under this approach, the city proactively acquires and holds vacant or underutilized land, preventing private land banking and speculation. By retaining control over municipal parcels, Kitchener can dedicate land specifically for non-profit supportive housing and three-storey gentle density projects, ensuring a permanent supply of affordable workforce housing that remains insulated from market volatility.
While permanent housing projects are developed and provincial funding red tape is navigated, the city needs an immediate, dignity-based solution for residents living in encampments. We cannot rely solely on reactive enforcement or passive shelter waiting lists. Instead, I support establishing a municipal Peer Employment program, drawing directly from proven local efforts such as the pilot initiative between The Bridges shelter and the Cambridge Mill, alongside community partners like St. John’s Kitchen and Recycle Cycles. These programs demonstrate that low-barrier, dignity-based work provides individuals with immediate financial agency and purpose.
Through this peer employment initiative, the City of Kitchener can hire unhoused residents for essential local work, including winter sidewalk clearing, trail maintenance, and municipal trade-support tasks. Providing reliable daily income empowers unhoused neighbors with the financial means to afford available room rentals, deposit payments, or transitional options right now, rather than leaving them stranded in encampments while awaiting government construction timelines.
Combining Ulm’s municipal land banking strategy with a Bridges-inspired peer employment program creates a clear pathway from temporary crisis to permanent stability. This approach ensures Kitchener builds lasting, publicly controlled housing for the future while delivering immediate dignity, earned income, and housing mobility to our most vulnerable residents today. Notes i did consider Helsinki, Finland (Housing First) & Vienna, Austria (The Social Housing Model). But I think Ulm, Germany Municipal Land Banking is the best for Kitchener. Now any use of Kitchener land is Indigenous land, and we will absolutely need to have Indigenous communities at the leadership table for this. When it comes to the jobs that this initiative will create, I have zero issue with ensuring a quota of a certain percentage of Indigenous trade and skilled workers being employed and paid.
Would you like to provide any additional context for your views on housing?
While addressing homelessness with dignity is vital, our municipal housing strategy must not overlook the hard-working residents who keep Kitchener running every day. In Ward 10, thousands of gainfully employed individuals earning under $90,000 annually from early childhood educators and healthcare aides to retail staff and apprentice tradespeople are quietly being priced out of the city they serve. The housing conversation too often focuses exclusively on opposite ends of the spectrum, leaving behind the working middle class who rent, pay their taxes, and simply want a fair shot at stable living costs.
My platform ensures working-class renters are no longer forgotten in municipal decision-making. Through a dedicated Workforce Housing Initiative, I advocate for three-storey gentle density, triplexes, and garden suites that create realistic, attainable rental options within our existing neighborhoods. Alongside expanding smart supply, we must protect current renters through a Dual-Action Property Standards Bylaw. When corporate landlords neglect basic essentials like heat, water, or structural repairs, municipal fines should be paid directly to affected tenants as financial restitution, enforcing real property management accountability and keeping living costs manageable.
Housing is the foundation of economic mobility and community strength. By pairing low-barrier economic opportunities for unhoused neighbors with strong tenant protections and workforce housing for our gainfully employed residents, we can build a Ward 10 where everyone has a stable place to call home. I am committed to delivering a practical, balanced housing strategy that serves all Kitchener residents with fairness and respect.
The core success of Ulm, Germany, is that the municipality acts as the primary buyer of development land, completely cutting out private land speculators who buy lots just to watch them inflate in value.
In Kitchener, the city can establish a Municipal Land Bank to proactively acquire vacant lots, brownfields, and underutilized commercial spaces. Instead of selling this land off to the highest corporate bidder, the city retains ownership and offers 99-year land leases to non-profit developers, housing cooperatives, and local builders.
As a mortgage broker and commercial appraiser, I know exactly what this does to a housing pro forma: if a builder does not have to purchase the land, the capital required to build drops massively. We then attach strict "use-it-or-lose-it" clauses to the lease if the developer doesn't break ground within 24 months, the lease is revoked. This stops land hoarding, removes land speculation costs from working-class rent, and guarantees a permanent supply of affordable workforce housing.
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