Waterloo Region 20,000 Homes Campaign Registry Week Pilot Report August 2015

Background and Purpose

This report provides final results and a progress update on the Waterloo Region 20,000 Homes Campaign Registry Week Pilot. Waterloo Region was the first community in Canada to pilot a 20,000 Homes Registry Week. This report shares the overall success of the pilot, and identifies how the information has supported the community to move closer to its goal of ending homelessness.

20,000 Homes Campaign and Registry Week

The 20,000 Homes Campaign was inspired by the successful 100,000 Homes Campaign in the United States, where 186 cities, counties and states housed 105,580 vulnerable and persistently homeless individuals and families in less than four years (July 2010 to July 2014). The 20,000 Homes Campaign has been adapted to work in a Canadian context and was launched June 16, 2015 by the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness (CAEH).

The 20,000 Homes Campaign will engage communities to work together to permanently house 20,000 of Canada’s most vulnerable people experiencing homelessness by July 1, 2018. The Campaign approach typically begins with a Registry Week, during which volunteers are trained to conduct a short health and housing survey with everyone experiencing homelessness. The survey collects person-specific information to know people experiencing homelessness by name and better understand their level of vulnerability and acuity (or depth of need). This data provides the community with the unique ability to tailor responses and track progress towards ending homelessness, person by person.

In the fall of 2014, teams of volunteers in Waterloo Region were assembled to conduct surveys with people experiencing homelessness on November 30 and December 1. The initial findings and a short video were shared at the Community Debrief meeting on December 3, 2014. Since that time, results have been further analyzed and then compared to Registry Week pilot results from Ottawa and Hamilton (conducted in April 2015). 

Publication Date: 
2015