Residents invited to tour the region's new outdoor shelter
CBC
The new tiny home shelter space at 1001 Erbs Road is just a couple steps away from opening.
It looks vastly different than it did just a few months ago, when it was just an empty plot of land full of wild shrubs.
Media were invited to tour the mostly-finished shelter space on April 20.
WATCH | Fifty new steel shelters will open soon in Waterloo region
Tours for the general public will begin on Tuesday, April 25 from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Those who would like to attend must register in advance on the EngageWR website.
Matthew Lubberts is the owner of Housing Now, the construction company building the new encampment.
He said these new tiny homes have a unique feature — they come attached with a steel loop on the roof that makes them easier to move.
"We thought it was important to make something that was relatively easy to move," Lubberts said. "So that if there was something that had to be moved either because of seasons or because of political pressure ... this is something that could be potentially moved."
The shelter space at 1001 Erbs Road has taken lessons from A Better Tent City (ABTC), a similar encampment of 42 tiny homes on Waterloo Region District School Board land near Highway 8. The Erbs Rd. encampment will accommodate 50 people in tiny homes of about 10 square meters in size.
Lubberts said unlike the tiny homes at ABTC, the tiny homes at the region's outdoor shelter were built using steel.
"But I do believe they're mostly wood sheds there [at ABTC]," he said. "So they're susceptible to mould, rot, a few other things like that."
After the location of the new outdoor shelter was announced, some people criticised the region for choosing to build it so close to the landfill.
Peter Sweeney, the commissioner of community services at the Region of Waterloo, said the location was chosen to help get the project up and running faster.
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