Campaigns

A City For Everyone: Allowing lodging homes as-of-right and updating the licensing of lodging homes

Licensing lodging homes and allowing them broadly throughout the City of Kitchener are best achieved together. The benefits of an updated licensing regime will be null and void if there is no incentive for lodging home operators to licence their lodging homes because they are not allowed without further zoning permissions.

Licensing can play a vital role in improving safety and well-being of tenants. It must not be used to regulate tenants themselves, or effectively push tenants out of neighbourhoods.

Click to read our submission to the City of Kitchener on lodging homes.

WR YIMBY is in support of lodging homes in Kitchener

WR YIMBY supports lodging homes being allowed broadly throughout the City of Kitchener. Lodging homes have five or more tenants with some shared accommodations, such as a bathroom or kitchen. They are much more likely to be affordable than other housing types. A Kitchener report calls for removing the current 400 metre minimum separation distance requirement for lodging homes, and allowing them as-of right in all zones that include residential, so long as they can be serviced by city utilities.

Click to read our Op-Ed on this issue.

WR YIMBY applauds fourplexes as-of-right in Kitchener

Kitchener’s Mayor, Berry Vrbanovic, brought forth a motion (October 2023) to direct staff to create a bylaw allowing 4-plexes “as of-right” throughout the City of Kitchener. The motion passed unanimously, and the bylaw is expected to be written and voted on early in the new year.

Click to read WR YIMBY’s delegation on that issue.

WR YIMBY Budget 2023 Delegation

On February 8th 2023, WR YIMBY members delegated to Regional Council regarding the proposed budget. Items addressed included: the need for 1100 additional units of affordable housing, the number of people in Waterloo Region experiencing homelessness, and the growing waitlist for housing.

Click to read our delegation.

WR YIMBY Rental Replacement Statement

We urge the province of Ontario to allow for the maintenance of strong tenant protections such as those provided through Rental Replacement rules. Indeed we would like the province to strengthen them and other tenant protections.

Click to read our full statement on rental replacement.

WR YIMBY Housing Platform

On World Habitat Day, WR YIMBY is releasing our Housing Platform which outlines some ideas and actions that we believe elected officials can make to address the housing crisis. Those actions include:

  • More housing in every neighbourhood for everybody

  • Don’t just allow housing, make it feasible

  • Create and support more affordable housing options and protect existing tenants

  • Use public land for affordable housing

  • Allow encampments on public land while working to make them unnecessary

Click to read the full platform.

Joint Statement in response to Ontario’s Housing Affordability Task Force Report

Waterloo Region Yes In My Backyard (WR YIMBY) and Hold The Line Waterloo Region have released a joint letter in response to Ontario's Housing Affordability Task Force Report, which recommends changes to the way housing is planned and built across the province.

Our letter highlights those recommendations which we believe could have a positive impact on housing supply and affordability. We also like to bring attention to what’s missing from the report, and caution against some of the recommendations that could do more harm than good.

While we believe it could go further, the report offers a path towards a positive vision for our community. Some of the recommendations can help build a more sustainable and inclusive Waterloo Region for the benefit of all citizens for years to come, if implemented quickly alongside other effective policies such as rent control, eviction prevention, and building deeply affordable non-profit housing.

Hold the Line and WR YIMBY believe that the future of Waterloo Region lies in increased density and transit-oriented walkable communities. We can meet the need for housing without expanding our countryside line. Such intensification will help provide more homes for people in all stages of life, while also protecting our rural farmland and countryside line.

You can read the full letter here.

The “Minimum Separation Distance” bylaw that limits lower-income housing in Kitchener

An example of this “NIMBY” attitude in practice is the minimum separation distance rule for lodging/rooming houses, which are defined by the City of Kitchener’s Zoning Bylaw as:

“a dwelling unit where five or more persons, not including a resident owner of the property, may rent a lodging unit and where the kitchen and other areas of the dwelling unit are shared.”

The City of Kitchener currently requires that a new lodging house must be at least 400 metres away from an existing lodging house. We oppose this rule as it limits the supply of much needed affordable housing, and unfairly targets people experiencing poverty who most need such housing. The Ontario Human Rights Commission agrees notes that zoning is not allowed to “control people based on their relationships, characteristics or perceived characteristics, rather than the use of a building”[i]. 

The good news is that City of Kitchener staff and Council are considering changing this rule and have tasked their Affordable Housing Strategic Advisory Committee with this question.  We will continue to oppose this rule and other rules that make housing more expensive.

[i] Ontario Human Rights Commission (2013) Room For Everyone