By Joe Mancini
Published September 2026
A Better Tent City (ABTC) was a remarkable shelter project that grew out of a plan developed in January 2020 by Ron Doyle and Jeff Willmer to respond to growing homelessness. With the formal shelters all full, Ron and Jeff wanted to create better shelter options compared to random encampments.
Two years later, during a cold and muddy November, the cabins of ABTC were moved to the Ardelt property by agreement with the City of Kitchener and the Waterloo Region District School Board. The site had no electricity, water or sewage when about 60 people moved into the newly placed cabins. There was no place to gather, no place to cook, no pathways. It took weeks to set up temporary electricity using a diesel generator. It was only in January that water, sewage and electricity services were hooked up. By May the community centre and kitchen were completed. Community fundraising made all this possible.
ABTC became a place supporting some 50 – 70 people on site. Meals were served all day and people used ABTC as a refuge and shelter, reducing the challenges of homelessness.
The leadership group met weekly ensuring the project held together. The main issue was whether access to the site should be restricted or open. No matter how much clean up was accomplished the site always had challenges. By 2026, as the challenges continued to grow more complex, the ABTC leadership group decided to close A Better Tent City.
At the end of March, the Board approached the Region of Waterloo to ask them to consider taking on this project to prevent it from closing. The next step was to hire a security company to help strengthen safety on site, and a generous donor made that possible. This helped the transition process tremendously.
A recent visitor to the cabins noted that “this is a community of people, a determined group of people helping other people, (they offer) so many little gestures that convey something deeper and positively human.”
In June, the Region of Waterloo approached The Working Centre to apply to operate the site as a shelter.
On the ground at ABTC, The Working Centre found a group of people fiercely protective of the independence they had created. This was a group who had lived together, some for more than four years, and had evolved ways of looking after each other.
We began to explore how to hold on to this spirit, while also shifting the model to meet the Emergency Shelter framework. This process has been a challenge for everyone.
The first step has been to shift the site from a public drop-in space to a space that focuses on the 55 people who were officially registered with ABTC. We have worked closely with a number of residents to clean cabins and outside areas. The meals have shifted, and we have been working with the many donors of food and to add this location (along with St. John’s Kitchen) to the places where we are preparing and serving three meals a day.
After five years of extensive use, significant renovations are in order. Some are related to the end of the Covid Emergency Measures that allowed this shelter project to get built. This means that the site must attain a building permit and ensure all structures meet building code. An important change is the requirement to install a universal washroom. Other work will include making the community centre more functional for supporting residents, developing a greater separation for the kitchen and exploring new cabins.
