“We deserve better”: Residents call for community led solution to Stratford’s homelessness crisis

Justine Styles told Stratford city council on June 23 that she came to Stratford for a reprieve – a reprieve from abuse and hopelessness.

“Little did I know I would be battling homelessness for a year and a half,” Styles said. “There is a massive homelessness issue in this city. If you haven't been here long enough, there's no support. If you haven't been abused, there's no support. If you're a man, there's no support.”

Styles was one of the many advocates at city hall that night to tell their story. Along with her peers, she told her story of bouncing around southwestern Ontario with her four children, struggling to find housing or shelter and contending with the bureaucratic hurdles that kept piling up.

Like many of the delegates, she wanted more from the City of Stratford to tackle the very real and pressing threats many residents face.

Monday night was not the first time local residents advocated for a meaningful response to homelessness in city hall this year. On June 10, advocates spoke at a social services subcommittee meeting and made similar requests. Led by 22-year-old activist Tanner Bergsma, they petitioned committee members to listen to what they had to say.

“All it takes is one person to say, ‘enough,’” said Bergsma during his impassioned speech that day. “To stand up. To speak out. And to remind others that we’re not powerless – unless we believe we are.”

Bergsma’s voice carried through the council chamber and beyond, livestreamed to a community he believes is being quietly left behind. “What’s happening here is not just a crisis,” he told the committee. “It is a collapse of conscience. And the worst part? You knew and turned a blind eye.”

The Stratford-born activist was diagnosed with autism as an adult and has previously experienced housing instability. His advocacy work spans housing equity, mental health issues and international humanitarian initiatives. But his focus on Stratford is deeply personal.

“Stratford raised me,” he said, “but Stratford is no longer recognizable.”

During his delegation to the committee, Bergsma cited troubling local data from the social service department’s monthly report: 254 households on Stratford’s affordable housing waitlist; 42 per cent of them seniors; 67 per cent needing only a one-bedroom unit. At least 160 individuals are already living without stable housing – but those are only the ones who’ve made it onto official records.

“What about the ones who gave up?” he asked. “The ones who couldn’t figure out the paperwork, who couldn’t keep waiting, who just disappeared?”

Patricia Denise shared her story of being under-housed through the Supported Housing of Perth Program (SHOPP) and being promised a transitional unit next door. That unit, she said, sat empty since January 2024 and the unit beneath it has now been empty for over ten months. “Meanwhile, I am at risk of losing custody of my grandchildren because I’m not properly housed,” she said, her voice cracking. “My grandkids and I are sharing a room. They’re getting older. They can’t share a room much longer.”

Denise said she had to reapply to the housing waitlist not just in Stratford, but across Ontario. The average wait time, she was told, is five to six years. “I don’t have that kind of time,” she said. “Every day I have to wonder if this is the day someone steps into my life to remove them.”

In a voice full of grief, she spoke about her brother James Boyd, a senior who died in February 2024 “as a direct result of homelessness.”

“He wasn’t couch-surfing,” she said. “He was outside in record-breaking snow and cold. He was cold. And he was hungry.

“The city of Stratford did that to me,” she went on to say. “And that’s just my story. There are hundreds like it.”

At the centre of their message, crystallized by Bergsma, was a call to pause all large-scale residential development until Stratford sets and begins meeting clear, measurable targets for affordable housing. Bergsma also called for immediate public consultation on Stratford’s 10-year housing and homelessness plan – consultation that includes those most directly affected. He proposed the creation of a permanent “lived experience advisory committee” with real power and voting status, the establishment of an all-genders emergency shelter and a mobile outreach team to meet people where they are.

He reiterated their points on June 23 – along with other advocates that evening who particularly advocated for a men’s shelter in Stratford.

Coun. Bonnie Henderson lamented that many of their ideas were not possible. For instance, suspending all residential developments is simply not permitted under the Municipal Act, which governs what municipalities can and can’t do. Likewise, making sure that a quota of all new housing is affordable is not possible.

Kim McElroy, director of social services, clarified that the current 10-year housing and homelessness plan lasted until this year and is in the process of being updated.

“And with the housing and homeless plan, we do a holistic look at what is needed. We meet with various people,” McElroy said.

Many councillors, while acknowledging what the delegates’ experienced, also spoke about some of the things that the social services department does which the public is not privy to. Coun. Lesley Biehn in particular listed the amount of affordable, supportive, and rent-geared-to-income housing that staff and council continues to expand.

“This is not a matter of us versus them,” she said. “We all share the common goal of ensuring that no individual is left without shelter. Despite the limitations of our resources, I assure you that our social services director and the housing manager, they approach their work with the utmost respect and dedication to every individual.”

Mayor Martin Ritsma thanked the delegates for speaking that evening and for “holding our feet to the fire.”

“I am in contact frequently with particularly men in our community for coffee and just conversation. So I'm not blind to it … homelessness is a challenge in our community,” Ritsma said. “… It has to be a made in Stratford approach, unless the federal, provincial, government comes through with saying, ‘Here's your dollars to build more supportive housing,’ and that's where I believe we need to start: supportive housing.”

A motion to have staff investigate a possible shelter and the delegates' action points as they work on the city's new housing and homelessness plan was passed unanimously. According to McElroy, a draft version of the plan will be presented to city council in the fall.

With files from Connor Luczka, Times editor.