Let’s Build Community As We Build Housing
This article was featured on page 27 in the Greater KW Chamber of Commerce’s November / December edition of the Chamber Advocate. Click here to view the full Advocate directly on their website.
Our region is changing. Fast. In the process, we're welcoming new residents from other parts of Canada and around the world. We're building new housing and workplaces and infrastructure at a remarkable pace. We're developing the next generation of technology companies determined to transform our world. We're also witnessing the ramifications of rapid growth, with its scarcity of affordable housing, increases in social isolation, and declines in personal connection to this place we call home.
For the past four years, Waterloo Region Community Foundation (WRCF) has been focusing on understanding the complexity of affordable housing and on exploring potential solutions. We published Waterloo Region Vital Signs® to bring data to conversations, loaned millions of dollars to local affordable housing initiatives, and supported Kindred’s launch of a first-of-its-kind Affordable Housing GIC.
Despite Waterloo Region continuing to be among the ten fastestgrowing larger metropolitan areas on the continent with its dizzying rate of new local construction, Waterloo Region Vital Signs® confirmed our housing supply is still not keeping up. There is a dramatic mismatch between the type of housing needed and the type of housing being built – both by unit size and by pricing. We know the region’s housing crisis continues to hit our most vulnerable hardest – the young, non-homeowner older adults, newcomers and refugees, those who identify as Indigenous, Black or as a person of colour, those with disabilities, and individuals exiting the child welfare system. This uneven impact deepens social disparities, threatening the cohesion and diversity that makes our community strong.
Our housing crisis is about more than housing, however. People living in unaffordable housing are less likely to thrive. In Waterloo Region, residents spending over 30% of their income on housing were twice as likely to report low life satisfaction and were 1.5 times more likely to report fair or poor mental health, illustrating the significant correlation between housing affordability and overall wellbeing. Local residents also have a lower sense of belonging and lower rates of neighbourhood satisfaction compared with the rest of the country. But we can do something about this. As we build more housing, we have an opportunity and an obligation to build more community.
We’re the Waterloo Region COMMUNITY Foundation. Community is at the core of our name and at the core of our mission. We are fixated on expanding our role in the positive transformation of our community. Previously, “community” almost exclusively meant one’s neighborhood. But the term now is used to describe groups of people connected by a wide variety of shared interests. While neighborhoods are still communities, we see how non-geographic communities – of identity, of faith, of school alumni, of culture, of business – can also bring people together. Moreover, we’re intrigued with how we can create more places and spaces to bring multiple communities together to cultivate more trust, and foster more engagement, equity, sustainability, and joy.
Whether you are a real estate developer or agent, a curious investor, a business owner, a newcomer, an elected official, a passionate advocate, a tech-savvy entrepreneur, an employee, or simply an interested resident, there are ways you can help. Attend community events. Read the most recent Vital Signs® report. Join conversations. Consider setting up a fund to reinvest in this place we all love. Advocate for more spaces and places to build more community.
While only one year into my tenure at WRCF, I know we’re up to the challenge. Our residents have the collective ambition, creativity, diversity, and compassion to redefine what a thriving community can achieve. If you have ideas, give me a call. Let’s get a coffee and think of more ways WRCF can be your partner in building more community.
Eric Avner is the President & CEO of Waterloo Region Community Foundation (WRCF), an organization focused on creating and supporting “Sustainable, Equitable, Thriving Communities.” You can contact Eric at 519-725-1806 x 201 or at eric@wrcf.ca.