Vital Signs® is a community-driven data program that is led nationally by Community Foundations of Canada, and locally by community foundations across Canada – including Waterloo Region Community Foundation (WRCF).

Affordable Housing continues to be a critical issue for Waterloo Region.

As a result, Waterloo Region Community Foundation (WRCF) has researched and created a 2023 Waterloo Region Vital Signs® Report focused specifically on affordable housing to provide more information about this issue that matters to our community; and to help people and organizations across our region turn that knowledge into action.

The Waterloo Region 2023 Vital Signs® Report illustrates how the 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. Read our press release for more details.

To find out more about Vital Signs reports published across Canada, visit www.vitalsignscanada.ca.

If you would like a presentation of Waterloo Region’s Vital Signs®, reach out to info@wrcf.ca, and we can coordinate a time to connect with you.

If you have questions or comments about Waterloo Region’s Vital Signs®, contact info@wrcf.ca.

Click here to download a pdf of Waterloo Region’s 2023 Vital Signs® Report

Click here to access our blog sharing additional insights on the housing crisis from the municipal lens across the three cities and four townships

Waterloo Region’s 2023 Vital Signs® Report would not have been possible without the funding provided by:

and the support provided by Common Good Strategies

Past Vital Signs Reports Focused on Affordable Housing

Background of Waterloo Region Vital Signs®

Prior to 2017
WRCF partnered with community organizations and leaders to gather and interpret research to create Waterloo Region's Vital Signs® Reports and Vital Signs® Priority Scorecard Reports. Data was collected from various trusted and respected sources including Statistics Canada, Ontario Municipal Benchmarking Initiative (OMBI), Municipal Performance Measurement Program (MPMP), Environment Canada, Region of Waterloo, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Elections Canada, Crime Severity Index, Ontario Education Quality and Accountability, and Industry Canada.

In addition, community members were asked to assign “grades” in 11 key areas critical to Waterloo Region's quality of life: The Gap Between the Rich and Poor, Safety, Health and Wellness, Learning, Housing, Getting Started in Our Community, Arts and Culture, The Environment, Work, Belonging and Leadership, as well as Getting Around. An expert resource panel then provided insight into the data and indicators chosen for the reports. The reports assisted organizations and individuals across Waterloo Region in making connections between issues and trends in different areas, informed WRCF’s strategic direction and actions to support the community.

We also commissioned a study to further understand the state of belonging in our community (pdf).

Between 2017 and 2020
Rather than conduct our own research, we directed our resources to a community-wide initiative called Wellbeing Waterloo Region. We used the information gathered through that work and subsequent learnings to focus our Granting, Impact Investing and Mobilizing towards the three core issues of Affordable Housing, Healthy Children & Youth, and Social Inclusion.

In 2020, we also held a series of Vital Conversations with Youth, and created a summary report (pdf) in partnership with Community Foundations of Canada and the RBC Foundation.

Between 2021 and 2022

With affordable housing emerging as a critical issue across Waterloo Region, WRCF created a 2021 Vital Signs® report focused on the state of affordable housing in our communities. It examined affordable housing through a variety of lenses including economic security, gender, immigration, the environment, children and youth, and for those with disabilities. This report was followed by two compendium reports in 2022.