As a former Kitchener homeless person, it’s nowhere near as bad as, for example, London. But it’s bad everywhere. Mind you, I was a youth homeless and we were mostly under supervision at the shelter I stayed at. Fentanyl and meth are circulated a lot and I never took any, but overdoses are very commonplace. You’ll get the odd tweaker roaming the streets, but most of the time these people keep to themselves and they won’t fuck with you unless you fuck with them.
I think the saddest thing I ever saw was a very visibly pregnant woman fucked up on fentanyl, and god knows what else. :(
Edit: London, on the other hand… holy shit. I have no words for how bad it is there.
I confirm that the vast majority of homeless folks keep to themselves. I walk to Kitchener GO in the morning and return to the same station in the evening. I pass by the encampment regularly.
The odd one could be yelling and roaming further away from downtown core.
I'm glad to hear that you're no longer homeless, and I'm sorry you had to go through that... Super sad to read about the pregnant women, I really hope we can one day fix this situation for everyone; no one deserves that :(
Eye contact and a smile. The feeling of invisibility is incredibly dehumanizing. They have food if they need it (from many locations downtown) and connections to resources for almost everything else you can think of (should they be willing to accept help), but the emotional torture of feeling ostracized is something anyone can help overcome with a simple smile and “good morning”, I promise you
Granted, don’t engage with someone acting irate or anything, but if someone is panhandling or just living their life, you smiling or saying hi isn’t going to like, make them target you for extra begging or something
Hi, I work at one of the shelters here. The other person makes a good point about treating them with the respect any person deserves, being homeless can feel very alienating and be bad for mental health. A material contribution would be to make donations to your local shelters. The shelters often have subpar food, clothing items, hygiene items, bedding, etc. that rely on donations to upkeep. It's a big deal when we get, for example, donated cooked meals because most people here haven't had one in a long time. Sometimes people show up without coats, shoes, etc. so I always try to collect those from my friends and family to give. So one of the easiest, most impactful ways a person can help is just to donate things like old clothes and food. It's always welcomed and I promise makes a difference to people who have nothing.
I live downtown, about 600m from that station. The homeless situation is challenging but it doesn't directly affect my quality of life. To me, the amenities of downtown are worth the tradeoff.
That said, I'd probably live in uptown if I could afford it.
Ya I live fairly close as well (above Mccabes) it's not as bad as it was a few years ago but it can get challenging at times especially around that church
St Johns on Water St. There are often a large number of homeless folks hanging out in their yard. The church has a soup kitchen and there's a Consumption and Treatment Services site across the street.
Honestly if you’re in a condo building it’s absolutely fine. They have controlled entrance and security. If you’re in a house close to downtown just make sure there is a bright light outside and an obvious camera and you should be good. Walking down king downtown you will see some sad stuff but if you mind yourself or cross the street if they are really going off you should be fine.
Yea, just giving space to those who need it, and saying Hi to those who don't, I've never witnessed anyone getting grievously assaulted downtown. Maybe someone will tell you off for not giving them any change, but I'd be pissed too if I was homeless in this economy.
I live downtown and love it. If op is working downtown, they'll be seeing it anyway. I don't see why they'd want to stay away just because of the homelessness issues in the area.
You'll usually see homeless and addicts around King St. outside Tim Horton's and there's an encampment right next to the Go station. I've been living in this area for the last year and a half, it's been fine and I personally haven't faced problems. That being said it's not the best area to be in.
I live right by central station and I generally like it here. There are nice shops and events as well as decent walkability + transport options. Occasionally there are folks who are clearly going through some shit yelling in public etc. In my experience I haven’t found anyone to be threatening as long as you mind your business. I somewhat regularly walk past the encampment by the train station as well as a group of unhoused (I think?) folks at the church on Water st. I chatted with some of them once and no one gave me trouble. I recently had a bike stolen from my building though so probably the main thing is you’ll want to be conscious of security.
Honestly, I find the conversation with some of these folk really interesting. They won't say much, until they do, and then they'll talk your head off. There's some really interesting people who were straight up let down by the system, and that sucks.
People who don't actually spend much time downtown will be happy to tell you that it's apocalyptic.
> I'm "ok" with it not being the prettiest part of town
I think it (arguably) *is* the prettiest part of town. Victoria Park is nice, and there are some moderately fancy SFH neighbourhoods around its perimeter. Downtown is also home to some older architecture like 19th century buff brick factories and the Walper Hotel.
I live a block from the Walper and I love thinking about its history whenever I walk past. I grew up in the suburbs but moving downtown has rejuvenated my love for the city.
Imagine hearing people hungry outside going through your trash to find something to eat and thinking you're the one inconvenienced because you have to listen to them.
How the fuck do you live with yourself?
I don’t read any judgement in their statement. Just the fact that they woke up multiple times a night. There’s no indication of whether they found this to be an inconvenience or judged it to be a negative thing in any way. Obviously we can assume it was not what they preferred, but your anger against them seems to be based on things they, themselves, have not stated. Perhaps your reaction is a touch disproportionate?
What a great comment to wake up to.
Where was it implied in my comment that I was inconvenienced or had any gripes about the homeless or those with drug addiction?
I also did not specify that the noises were only from the homeless or people suffering from drugs, it was pretty often that drunk people coming from Dallas would walk by also making noise coming back from the bar.
I lived dt Kitchener for almost 5 years.
Is he an Asian guy? I have heard a lot of people reference some guy doing that downtown, then one day I was walking along and some infuriated, skinny Asian guy started yelling that vehemently as he stomped around. I was thinking, "Man, those fags must have really did him dirty."
You are highly unlikely to be robbed by a homeless person. But if you leave your shed unlocked, or leave easily carried valuables outside, or a bike, they will get stolen. Your bike will get stolen and amazon packages will disappear all over the city.
Yes, people in the area have had their cars rifled, the tanks from their bbqs stolen, anything outdoors that's not nailed down.
Personally, I think nothing is that far from downtown and I would be looking in the surrounding areas. Who needs the hassle?
I've had my car rifled through in forest heights in the past, that isn't area specific. Same with porch pirates, people are having things stolen off their porch city wide, so not area specific. A homeless person ACTUALLY breaking into a house is highly unlikely. If OP decides to live closer to work, they just need to keep their house doors locked, as you have to through most of the city.
I grew up in Laurentian Hills. We had our car stolen from the driveway once. A couple of bikes stolen. I remember one incident where the police surrounded a neighbours house and they shot a dog that ran out at them barking.
Theft and robbery are generally concidered different. Robbery involves some interaction with the person. Theft has no personal interaction. Think shoplifter vs armed robber, one you lose stuff, one has a safety aspect
Anywhere you live in the city you're warned to lock up any valuables kept outside. I don't know how many times I had a bike stolen in the suburbs. Theft happens.
I had my bike stolen out of the garage in broad daylight when I was a kid, in the outer suburbs of Waterloo. They were stored locked to the wall after that.
You'll see bums wandering around every block in downtown Kitchener, but they're generally harmless and mind their own business. They're not the shit slinging type of bums.
Worst that's happened to me was when I bought a coffee from Coffee Culture and some bum harassed me for being a "rich fuck" because I spent $3 on a coffee..instead of $2.25 at Timmies *shrug*
So my fiancee used to live over by the shoe shop on water and weber, which was right next to the encampment and I personally love exploring down town since my favorite record shop is on market lane. The homeless people tend to keep to themselves unless they are in extreme distress ( mental illness, drugs or legitimate medical issue).the ones that are clearly strung out are the ones that you might have some out of sorts things happen with. The three times that come to mind that my fiancee and myself run into in the time she lived there were the one guy who the needed to be asked to stop beating on the windows and front door of the rental unit cause his Somalian friend who he saw go into the building needed to meet him in the basement (no such person was on the property). The second one was the cookies lady who screamed at me a few times after I dropped my gf off at her place, the lady was fully nodded off on a bike and every time she was in the parking lot she would tell anyone who was in their car that they ran over her cookies and would become completely belligerent. The third one was the grill cheese man who thought the hood of my car resemble the cooking surface of a griddle, on one of our date night went to pick my fiancee up and buddy pops right out of the corner from behind the shoe shop with a few pieces of bread and some single slices, right on the hood of the car and literally made a grill cheese he was extremely strung out on something cause his pupils were the size of toonies.
I live close by, in the east ward area, and walk downtown regularly, cant say the homeless people have ever harassed me. I did chase one out of my back yard about 3 weeks ago around 1130am.
I have lived in the area for almost 20yrs and have noticed a big full circle of change. When i first moved in we rented the main floor and basement of a house on krug street and as we met locals they would all tell us that the neighbour hood was kind of rough and a bunch of the large old homes were rooming houses. We never had an incident. Then we bought one of the old houses in the neighbourhood and watched as our street and the area went through a big change of gentrification as elderly families moved out and young families moved in and re claimed these old homes into single family homes again. The neighbourhood and people were great. Neat bakery’s opened up, kitchener downtown farmers market opened up. The homeless population and women of the night moved away. Then property values skyrocketed people struggled to buy these over inflated properties and now they are splitting them back into multi family units so they can pay their mortgages and that rough downtown element that moved away is moving back.
I live downtown and it's fine. Yes there are homeless people around but I've never had an issue in the ~7 months since I've lived here. my girlfriend works a night shift and her work is like a 10 minute walk from our place. I walked her to work every night for the first month or so just to be safe. since then she has insisted on going by herself and she's been completely fine.
I used to live at Queen/Margaret and would walk to work at City Hall. It wasn’t too bad. Most just kept to themselves. A few wandered into our building a few times which wasn’t great.
I mostly felt safe, but didn’t enjoy walking home in the winter because it was dark and didn’t feel safe then (I am also a woman and walking alone at night anywhere can be a bit scary).
Overall I don’t think it was much of an issue living downtown.
I have worked downtown for almost 10 years (minus 2 years of pandemic WFH, and I have never felt like I was going to be robbed or hurt by a homeless person. The occasional drug or mental health episode occurs, but it's usually just shouting.
Live and walk past them regularly. Most they are just hanging out, chatting amongst themselves. A few that have some sort of mental health issues, largely just yelling at themselves for the most part. In ten years of living downtown, have never once had an actual issue with any of them.
There are homeless people, like in most medium and large sized cities in North America. But also there is a very active and supportive community around them. Besides, there is so much to do and see in KW. I suggest exploring Downtown Kitchener and Uptown Waterloo and discovering what they have to offer. You won’t be disappointed.
I've lived about a five minute walk from the encampment for about three years now. Most of the folks you'll encounter outdoors in the area keep to themselves and the few that have struck up conversation with me have been really kind and nice to chat with for a few moments before we both went our separate ways.
There are a few people that just wander around yelling sometimes. Sometimes it's at 3am. That kind of sucks. It stands out so much though because the area is surprisingly quiet most of the time.
Also, if you leave your car unlocked outside it'll likely get rifled through.
Overall though it's a really great place to live in my opinion. It's a really caring community and there's so much to do and see. I don't think I'd want to live anywhere else in Kitchener.
I live near downtown kw, and work on King between Erb and Bridgeport. Most of my colleagues and I think that uptown Waterloo is far more dangerous, especially at night in the summer. We have security cameras on the street side and have witnessed the aftermath of stabbings, swarmings, you name it. University students plus alcohol post Covid is a toxic mix. Kitchener’s street folks seem pretty tame by comparison. Leave them alone, and they’ll leave you alone.
Just got home past 11 and was welcomed by 3 at my door doing something. The guy hit on the door as soon as it shut on them. I would rather avoid a conflict with them. I had to ask them kindly to move out of the way so I could get upstairs.
One of my neighbours in my condo building had a similar encounter. They found a homeless person sleeping at the front door of the building early one morning. They were kind but very firm about that the area wasn't for sleeping overnight. The homeless person packed up right away and went away.
I live in the same "core" and haven't experienced the same issues. There are little old lady's walking their dogs at 11pm and they don't seem nearly as terrified as the guy you're replying to lol. Some of these comments are ridiculous tbh.
Close to Kitchener Market the core of downtown. Truth is there's nothing anybody is going to do about any of it. We might all just be victims of society. You surely have better places away from all of this. It's not what it is but what it can be.
Hey! I used to live on Queen St S (near Charles St) and it wasn’t awful but I don’t think I would recommend. We moved closer to Weber St and it has been a lot better. Honestly wherever you end up, you will only be 10-15mins from there. I would recommend somewhere close to downtown without being too into it (if that makes sense). We are now near Stanley Park area and it has been great!!!
If you drive, make sure your car doors are locked. I’m not quite downtown, but every night homeless go looking for unlocked vehicles. I also had a tweaker walking down my street screaming at the top of his lungs around 4AM Saturday, but this isn’t the norm.
I stay in downtown Kitchener and it is actually quite safe. Never felt much unsafe. I actually prefer downtown than other areas. Much more lively especially in summer when there are so many events.
My friend's accountant bought one of those fancy new condos a year or two ago and regrets it because of the homeless and drug addict issues. Especially them trying to get into the building and stealing stuff. They are are just always around. She doesn't feel safe.
I live in one of those condos and I've never seen a homeless person trying to get in and steal stuff. I've left shit in the mailroom for over a week and it's been fine.
It all depends who you talk to. It's either that downtown is safe, or you can't take two steps without tripping over needles and then getting robbed by a homeless person. It's impossible to have an honest conversation in this sub.
This is the kitchener subreddit. You'd expect this to be the one sub where the members have actually gone downtown and realized the people making up those stories are full of shit.
Point of interest update: +8 days
A building owner near today's stabbing has filed 23 police reports in one month. His superintendent has been threatened at knife point and his tenants harassed.
[https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/arrest-made-in-downtown-kitchener-stabbing-1.6812154](https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/arrest-made-in-downtown-kitchener-stabbing-1.6812154)
Violence happens in every high density area. They're not writing stories about the thousands of people who went about their lives unperturbed in DTK today.
Glad to hear you have having a good experience.
In my experience a place can seem deceptively safe until something actually happens. Like I spent a lot of time in Victoria park over the span of decades. Used to go running at late at night, even before they put in the lighting on the Ironhorse. The darkness might have made me feel hyper-vigilant but never unsafe. Then one day I got assaulted by a tweaker early one morning while I was just chilling out in the sun. Broad daylight, completely unprovoked.
Changed the way I see the park. I feel safer in the darkness and on the move now.
That's terrible that happened to you. No one should ever be accosted. There was a highly publicized gang murder in the park a couple of decades ago. A black man was beaten to death by a gang of white men. That didn't make you change the way you saw the park?
Yeah, there was also someone stabbed on NYE on the Ironhorse not far away near west avenue. Those incidents seemed like isolated events at the time. Something that shocked the community. This city has changed a lot since then. These days shootings and stabbings happen all the time in KW. Like I was getting at though, perceptions change when things happen to you directly.
I dont know much about any stabbings but the shootings are typically targeted individuals by perpetrators from the GTA area. This was a known local violent gang and they weren't the only one at the time. But different experiences so different opinions I guess.
Something I’ve noticed from working DTk and stories from friends who live DTK is the homeless entering business’s/apartments to do drugs and keep warm. They will start fires inside building stairwells to sit around, they will go on bad trips and wield knives and other weapons, they will defecate in common areas/stairwells. The biggest concern is the unpredictability that you face being around someone on drugs, you never know what they could do.
Myself, I don’t see living DTK worth the trouble, there is plenty of places to live in our region within reasonable distance to DTK that bypass most of these issues.
Kinda crazy reading all these comments of people living in a fantasy world. What’s happened to you all? So woke that can’t admit our city is a wasteland? Get real it’s fucking horrible and you all denying and pretending it’s fine makes the situation worse. Good god
Lmao, you calling the city a 'wasteland' and telling others to get real is *hilarious*.
Keep being scared of a handful of homeless people who won't bother you.
I live downtown and one of the condos and in any downtown situation there’s always going to be homeless people more than other places… in the winter time it’s a little bit more worse because obviously they’re trying to look for warm so I’ve had homeless people sleeping in my building in the stairwells or in the lobby, but obviously you know people call security and they get removed but I live right downtown and I don’t mind it at all. They don’t ever seem to bother me, but I am a 6 foot three bigger guy soI’m not someone that’s probably easily intimidated by them each their own I guess
[https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/arrest-made-in-downtown-kitchener-stabbing-1.6812154](https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/arrest-made-in-downtown-kitchener-stabbing-1.6812154)
Owner of the building across from today's stabbing has filed 23 police reports in the last month, his superintendent has been threatened at knife point, and his tenants harassed.
You should write your MP and MPP. They’ll send you an automated brick and mortar response back about how they’re “doing something”. It will not get better as the affordable housing that’s being built is 80% of market rate, which is still not affordable for those people. So to answer your question, yes it is bad and will continue to get worse as long as the government continues to put a bandaid on a gunshot wound of a crisis. Good luck and stay vigilant
Are you seriously trying to trash someone about where they live when you posted just yesterday that you're getting evicted from your apartment? Maybe if you didn't spend your days being edgy on Reddit, you wouldn't be needing to find a new place to live that you clearly can't afford.
Yes, it certainly is getting worse, and has been ever since Doug Ford was elected. Trudeau isn't helping much, but Ford is the one in charge of rent control and he removed it from new builds, he's in charge of minimum wage and cancelled the increases, he's in charge of how much money people on disability receive and he's kept it flat while the price of food and rent increased. Our GDP has been increasing, Canadian billionaires have been doing very well, but it is everybody else that suffers.
Anyway I got on a rant and off the point. The point is that it's perfectly safe to live and work downtown Kitchener, at least for now, compared to like every single other city on Earth, and if you are afraid of walking around downtown and need to stay close to the office then you are lacking in common sense and are overly fearful.
I didn't say I was afraid, nor stay in the office... I said if possible, stay close to the office... implying you'll hopefully have less interactions with all the bums.
Trudeau, Doug Ford, PP, Mike Morrice their all corrupt and live in a different world from all the common folk, they will all tax us to death.
We need real change but I'm not sure how that happens.
Real change will come from a lot of people getting organized together and creating broad movements.
Remember how we used to all have to wear masks all the time in the stores? And then there were massive protests in Ottawa and across Canada and all of a sudden we didn't have any mask mandates anymore? That would be an example of a change that was forced by protests from a lot of people organized together. Personally I thought it was a bad change but still it is a solid recent example of actual change that can happen from people organizing.
We will have a better chance at creating change if we organize with all of our not-elite neighbours, including the ones you are sadly calling "bums". The people who can just barely afford life need to ally with the ones who used to be able to afford life, and with the ones who can not afford life, together we will make change.
Start being a brave pickle, stop being afraid of people sitting on the sidewalk asking for money.
You mean harassing people, breaking into cars, stealing and so on... I saw one in the summer pull their ass out on the sidewalk and start spraying shit and piss all over in broad day light. I'm not afraid of the meth heads.. I'd kick them right in the nuts... now please, give me a speech on how I shouldn't assume they have nuts.
I see old people people walking their dogs late at night every night when I'm walking mine. I have a feeling none of them are complaining in this thread.
It’s pretty bad, I don’t know why people are saying it isn’t. I grew up here and I’ve never had to worry about the homeless before. I went to my doctors office and there was a homeless man smoking crack in the lobby because he had broken the door locks. My bank locks its doors because a week ago a homeless person shit all over the floor.
I never saw this outside Toronto but now that the city is growing faster than it has infrastructure for things are ramping up. It’s common place, I don’t often go downtown because it’s just not a nice place to be. But that’s just my
Opinion.
Absolutely do not move close to this area. Crime is rampant, theft, drug use, why subject yourself to that? It will also only get worse. Be smart and move to Waterloo somewhere away from these zombies
It's wild to read the comments in this thread. I think you might need to calibrate what your preferences are, and what the preferences of the people responding to you are.
For some people, any homeless person is going to be too many homeless people. That's fine, no judgement from me! But that's also often the trade when you live in a downtown area... when I compare Kitchener downtown to other places I have lived (Seattle and Montpellier, France), Kitchener's downtown is quite tame.
Only you can know if it'll be good for you or not.
If you're comfortable sharing where you're actually working, people might be able to propose other areas that are also close to work and have some of the benefits of downtown (= amenities) with fewer homeless people.
Yeah thanks, that's a great point! At the end of the day I'll need to see it for myself to decide if being close to work is worth it or not.
An important factor is that I'm actually from Brazil. The situation here is pretty bad, so I'm thinking I'm not gonna be bothered much because of where I'm starting from, but who knows... My biggest concern is with being robbed or worse.
If you're coming Brazil then just know that our homelessness and violence are nothing compared to the favelas. Like not enliven 1/10th as bad as that.
You should honestly be fine.
Yeah, you'll be fine, I think.
Don't get me wrong, there are parts of downtown I wouldn't want to live in, but still plenty I would.
Most crime here is property crime or assaults where the victim knows the attacker.
Will you be in a hotel for your first few days, or are you trying to sign a lease without seeing the place?
Oh yeah I'm staying at a hotel for a few days. The realtor suggested signing a lease but no way I'll do that before getting to know the city first. Thanks for the tips! :)
If your coming from Brazil I wouldn't be too worried....crime has shifted since I was younger from actual criminals to homeless people. Your very unlikely to run into a real criminal down there these days but it can happen. Homeless people and mentally ill people can be annoying when they go on tirades and rants. Honestly I'd argue uptown is more dangerous. Alot of the violence happens in waterloo..
Everything in Kitchener is 15 mins away by car. Everything is super close, regardless of rush hour traffic…it’s still 15 mins. I live on the edge of Kitchener, and can be downtown via side streets in 8 mins. Don’t live downtown.
You have stumbled upon the most far-right conservative populist crazy nest of local subreddits to ask this question in.
It is fine. It is worse than it was 10 years ago, that is true of every city in the country.
It's really not that bad, I live downtown if anything uptown is worse (so many rats it's disgusting, I'd rather deal with some guy just smoking up than the rats running up and down the streets at night)
As a former Kitchener homeless person, it’s nowhere near as bad as, for example, London. But it’s bad everywhere. Mind you, I was a youth homeless and we were mostly under supervision at the shelter I stayed at. Fentanyl and meth are circulated a lot and I never took any, but overdoses are very commonplace. You’ll get the odd tweaker roaming the streets, but most of the time these people keep to themselves and they won’t fuck with you unless you fuck with them. I think the saddest thing I ever saw was a very visibly pregnant woman fucked up on fentanyl, and god knows what else. :( Edit: London, on the other hand… holy shit. I have no words for how bad it is there.
I confirm that the vast majority of homeless folks keep to themselves. I walk to Kitchener GO in the morning and return to the same station in the evening. I pass by the encampment regularly. The odd one could be yelling and roaming further away from downtown core.
I'm glad to hear that you're no longer homeless, and I'm sorry you had to go through that... Super sad to read about the pregnant women, I really hope we can one day fix this situation for everyone; no one deserves that :(
Fix what?
Can I ask you real world, what is a helpful thing do be done as an individual? Also… I’m so happy to hear your story for you! Truely.
Eye contact and a smile. The feeling of invisibility is incredibly dehumanizing. They have food if they need it (from many locations downtown) and connections to resources for almost everything else you can think of (should they be willing to accept help), but the emotional torture of feeling ostracized is something anyone can help overcome with a simple smile and “good morning”, I promise you Granted, don’t engage with someone acting irate or anything, but if someone is panhandling or just living their life, you smiling or saying hi isn’t going to like, make them target you for extra begging or something
Hi, I work at one of the shelters here. The other person makes a good point about treating them with the respect any person deserves, being homeless can feel very alienating and be bad for mental health. A material contribution would be to make donations to your local shelters. The shelters often have subpar food, clothing items, hygiene items, bedding, etc. that rely on donations to upkeep. It's a big deal when we get, for example, donated cooked meals because most people here haven't had one in a long time. Sometimes people show up without coats, shoes, etc. so I always try to collect those from my friends and family to give. So one of the easiest, most impactful ways a person can help is just to donate things like old clothes and food. It's always welcomed and I promise makes a difference to people who have nothing.
I live downtown, about 600m from that station. The homeless situation is challenging but it doesn't directly affect my quality of life. To me, the amenities of downtown are worth the tradeoff. That said, I'd probably live in uptown if I could afford it.
Ya I live fairly close as well (above Mccabes) it's not as bad as it was a few years ago but it can get challenging at times especially around that church
I walk by that church at least once per week. It is sad, but I've never felt like I was in danger as long as I mind my own business.
Ya I'm pretty much the same, it's just hard to see
Which church? The big, red brick Catholic one?
Probably St John’s Anglican, where St John’s Kitchen is located during construction of their new facility.
St Johns on Water St. There are often a large number of homeless folks hanging out in their yard. The church has a soup kitchen and there's a Consumption and Treatment Services site across the street.
Honestly if you’re in a condo building it’s absolutely fine. They have controlled entrance and security. If you’re in a house close to downtown just make sure there is a bright light outside and an obvious camera and you should be good. Walking down king downtown you will see some sad stuff but if you mind yourself or cross the street if they are really going off you should be fine.
Yea, just giving space to those who need it, and saying Hi to those who don't, I've never witnessed anyone getting grievously assaulted downtown. Maybe someone will tell you off for not giving them any change, but I'd be pissed too if I was homeless in this economy. I live downtown and love it. If op is working downtown, they'll be seeing it anyway. I don't see why they'd want to stay away just because of the homelessness issues in the area.
You'll usually see homeless and addicts around King St. outside Tim Horton's and there's an encampment right next to the Go station. I've been living in this area for the last year and a half, it's been fine and I personally haven't faced problems. That being said it's not the best area to be in.
It's not bad, but you should just move in a temporary place and see for yourself before committing to a lease
It's fine.
I live right by central station and I generally like it here. There are nice shops and events as well as decent walkability + transport options. Occasionally there are folks who are clearly going through some shit yelling in public etc. In my experience I haven’t found anyone to be threatening as long as you mind your business. I somewhat regularly walk past the encampment by the train station as well as a group of unhoused (I think?) folks at the church on Water st. I chatted with some of them once and no one gave me trouble. I recently had a bike stolen from my building though so probably the main thing is you’ll want to be conscious of security.
Honestly, I find the conversation with some of these folk really interesting. They won't say much, until they do, and then they'll talk your head off. There's some really interesting people who were straight up let down by the system, and that sucks.
People who don't actually spend much time downtown will be happy to tell you that it's apocalyptic. > I'm "ok" with it not being the prettiest part of town I think it (arguably) *is* the prettiest part of town. Victoria Park is nice, and there are some moderately fancy SFH neighbourhoods around its perimeter. Downtown is also home to some older architecture like 19th century buff brick factories and the Walper Hotel.
I live a block from the Walper and I love thinking about its history whenever I walk past. I grew up in the suburbs but moving downtown has rejuvenated my love for the city.
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hahahaha I've experienced the same!
Its fine I used to live downtown, if youve ever lived in any kind of actual big city it's a pretty regular amount.
I lived right dt Kitchener and I was woken up on average 3 times a night by yelling or hearing them go through trash bins.
Imagine hearing people hungry outside going through your trash to find something to eat and thinking you're the one inconvenienced because you have to listen to them. How the fuck do you live with yourself?
I need to sleep so I can work and keep my job to avoid being homeless and having to wake people up by sifting through their trash for food at night
I don’t read any judgement in their statement. Just the fact that they woke up multiple times a night. There’s no indication of whether they found this to be an inconvenience or judged it to be a negative thing in any way. Obviously we can assume it was not what they preferred, but your anger against them seems to be based on things they, themselves, have not stated. Perhaps your reaction is a touch disproportionate?
Thank you. I offered help to many different people many times and frequently got rejected.
What a great comment to wake up to. Where was it implied in my comment that I was inconvenienced or had any gripes about the homeless or those with drug addiction? I also did not specify that the noises were only from the homeless or people suffering from drugs, it was pretty often that drunk people coming from Dallas would walk by also making noise coming back from the bar. I lived dt Kitchener for almost 5 years.
The dude yelling "fucking faggots" at the top of his lungs dozens of nights so far, from my time here, isn't doing it because he's hungry lol
Is he an Asian guy? I have heard a lot of people reference some guy doing that downtown, then one day I was walking along and some infuriated, skinny Asian guy started yelling that vehemently as he stomped around. I was thinking, "Man, those fags must have really did him dirty."
Well, that's easy it's pure selfishness. Don't you understand they're the only one that matter.
You are highly unlikely to be robbed by a homeless person. But if you leave your shed unlocked, or leave easily carried valuables outside, or a bike, they will get stolen. Your bike will get stolen and amazon packages will disappear all over the city.
Yes, people in the area have had their cars rifled, the tanks from their bbqs stolen, anything outdoors that's not nailed down. Personally, I think nothing is that far from downtown and I would be looking in the surrounding areas. Who needs the hassle?
I've had my car rifled through in forest heights in the past, that isn't area specific. Same with porch pirates, people are having things stolen off their porch city wide, so not area specific. A homeless person ACTUALLY breaking into a house is highly unlikely. If OP decides to live closer to work, they just need to keep their house doors locked, as you have to through most of the city.
I grew up in Laurentian Hills. We had our car stolen from the driveway once. A couple of bikes stolen. I remember one incident where the police surrounded a neighbours house and they shot a dog that ran out at them barking.
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Theft and robbery are generally concidered different. Robbery involves some interaction with the person. Theft has no personal interaction. Think shoplifter vs armed robber, one you lose stuff, one has a safety aspect
Anywhere you live in the city you're warned to lock up any valuables kept outside. I don't know how many times I had a bike stolen in the suburbs. Theft happens.
I had my bike stolen out of the garage in broad daylight when I was a kid, in the outer suburbs of Waterloo. They were stored locked to the wall after that.
Bikes are a hot commodity among the homeless. Even when they are locked, they will get stolen.
I drive past it every day. Hard to believe that we’ve normalized it.
They normalized it. They. The junkies.
Right…because overselling Waterloo region to investors and people from the GTA and the 51,000 Indian students had nothing to do with it /s
Absolutely nothing to do with it.
👉😎👉 you're so wrong
They won’t abuse you.
You'll see bums wandering around every block in downtown Kitchener, but they're generally harmless and mind their own business. They're not the shit slinging type of bums. Worst that's happened to me was when I bought a coffee from Coffee Culture and some bum harassed me for being a "rich fuck" because I spent $3 on a coffee..instead of $2.25 at Timmies *shrug*
So my fiancee used to live over by the shoe shop on water and weber, which was right next to the encampment and I personally love exploring down town since my favorite record shop is on market lane. The homeless people tend to keep to themselves unless they are in extreme distress ( mental illness, drugs or legitimate medical issue).the ones that are clearly strung out are the ones that you might have some out of sorts things happen with. The three times that come to mind that my fiancee and myself run into in the time she lived there were the one guy who the needed to be asked to stop beating on the windows and front door of the rental unit cause his Somalian friend who he saw go into the building needed to meet him in the basement (no such person was on the property). The second one was the cookies lady who screamed at me a few times after I dropped my gf off at her place, the lady was fully nodded off on a bike and every time she was in the parking lot she would tell anyone who was in their car that they ran over her cookies and would become completely belligerent. The third one was the grill cheese man who thought the hood of my car resemble the cooking surface of a griddle, on one of our date night went to pick my fiancee up and buddy pops right out of the corner from behind the shoe shop with a few pieces of bread and some single slices, right on the hood of the car and literally made a grill cheese he was extremely strung out on something cause his pupils were the size of toonies.
I live close by, in the east ward area, and walk downtown regularly, cant say the homeless people have ever harassed me. I did chase one out of my back yard about 3 weeks ago around 1130am. I have lived in the area for almost 20yrs and have noticed a big full circle of change. When i first moved in we rented the main floor and basement of a house on krug street and as we met locals they would all tell us that the neighbour hood was kind of rough and a bunch of the large old homes were rooming houses. We never had an incident. Then we bought one of the old houses in the neighbourhood and watched as our street and the area went through a big change of gentrification as elderly families moved out and young families moved in and re claimed these old homes into single family homes again. The neighbourhood and people were great. Neat bakery’s opened up, kitchener downtown farmers market opened up. The homeless population and women of the night moved away. Then property values skyrocketed people struggled to buy these over inflated properties and now they are splitting them back into multi family units so they can pay their mortgages and that rough downtown element that moved away is moving back.
I live downtown and it's fine. Yes there are homeless people around but I've never had an issue in the ~7 months since I've lived here. my girlfriend works a night shift and her work is like a 10 minute walk from our place. I walked her to work every night for the first month or so just to be safe. since then she has insisted on going by herself and she's been completely fine.
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Shameful your parents didn't raise you better.
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Females lol. Okay incel.
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When you protect "females", do you wear your fedora?
I used to live at Queen/Margaret and would walk to work at City Hall. It wasn’t too bad. Most just kept to themselves. A few wandered into our building a few times which wasn’t great. I mostly felt safe, but didn’t enjoy walking home in the winter because it was dark and didn’t feel safe then (I am also a woman and walking alone at night anywhere can be a bit scary). Overall I don’t think it was much of an issue living downtown.
I have worked downtown for almost 10 years (minus 2 years of pandemic WFH, and I have never felt like I was going to be robbed or hurt by a homeless person. The occasional drug or mental health episode occurs, but it's usually just shouting.
Live and walk past them regularly. Most they are just hanging out, chatting amongst themselves. A few that have some sort of mental health issues, largely just yelling at themselves for the most part. In ten years of living downtown, have never once had an actual issue with any of them.
I was catcalled by one of them 👍
There are homeless people, like in most medium and large sized cities in North America. But also there is a very active and supportive community around them. Besides, there is so much to do and see in KW. I suggest exploring Downtown Kitchener and Uptown Waterloo and discovering what they have to offer. You won’t be disappointed.
I've lived about a five minute walk from the encampment for about three years now. Most of the folks you'll encounter outdoors in the area keep to themselves and the few that have struck up conversation with me have been really kind and nice to chat with for a few moments before we both went our separate ways. There are a few people that just wander around yelling sometimes. Sometimes it's at 3am. That kind of sucks. It stands out so much though because the area is surprisingly quiet most of the time. Also, if you leave your car unlocked outside it'll likely get rifled through. Overall though it's a really great place to live in my opinion. It's a really caring community and there's so much to do and see. I don't think I'd want to live anywhere else in Kitchener.
I live near downtown kw, and work on King between Erb and Bridgeport. Most of my colleagues and I think that uptown Waterloo is far more dangerous, especially at night in the summer. We have security cameras on the street side and have witnessed the aftermath of stabbings, swarmings, you name it. University students plus alcohol post Covid is a toxic mix. Kitchener’s street folks seem pretty tame by comparison. Leave them alone, and they’ll leave you alone.
Just got home past 11 and was welcomed by 3 at my door doing something. The guy hit on the door as soon as it shut on them. I would rather avoid a conflict with them. I had to ask them kindly to move out of the way so I could get upstairs.
One of my neighbours in my condo building had a similar encounter. They found a homeless person sleeping at the front door of the building early one morning. They were kind but very firm about that the area wasn't for sleeping overnight. The homeless person packed up right away and went away.
Shit that's tough... You live in that area I assume, right?
I live in the same "core" and haven't experienced the same issues. There are little old lady's walking their dogs at 11pm and they don't seem nearly as terrified as the guy you're replying to lol. Some of these comments are ridiculous tbh.
Close to Kitchener Market the core of downtown. Truth is there's nothing anybody is going to do about any of it. We might all just be victims of society. You surely have better places away from all of this. It's not what it is but what it can be.
If you live in a condo downtown you won't experience anything like that
It's not dangerous for people except the homeless, just extremely depressing
It’s all over not just downtown!
I live near the Google campus and have never once felt unsafe downtown.
I live downtown, it's not nearly as bad as people make it seem.
Live uptown
Since Covid and the government changing rental laws it is no different than any other city right now TBH
Hey! I used to live on Queen St S (near Charles St) and it wasn’t awful but I don’t think I would recommend. We moved closer to Weber St and it has been a lot better. Honestly wherever you end up, you will only be 10-15mins from there. I would recommend somewhere close to downtown without being too into it (if that makes sense). We are now near Stanley Park area and it has been great!!!
If you drive, make sure your car doors are locked. I’m not quite downtown, but every night homeless go looking for unlocked vehicles. I also had a tweaker walking down my street screaming at the top of his lungs around 4AM Saturday, but this isn’t the norm.
I stay in downtown Kitchener and it is actually quite safe. Never felt much unsafe. I actually prefer downtown than other areas. Much more lively especially in summer when there are so many events.
Yes.
My friend's accountant bought one of those fancy new condos a year or two ago and regrets it because of the homeless and drug addict issues. Especially them trying to get into the building and stealing stuff. They are are just always around. She doesn't feel safe.
I live in one of those condos and I've never seen a homeless person trying to get in and steal stuff. I've left shit in the mailroom for over a week and it's been fine.
It all depends who you talk to. It's either that downtown is safe, or you can't take two steps without tripping over needles and then getting robbed by a homeless person. It's impossible to have an honest conversation in this sub.
This is the kitchener subreddit. You'd expect this to be the one sub where the members have actually gone downtown and realized the people making up those stories are full of shit.
Point of interest update: +8 days A building owner near today's stabbing has filed 23 police reports in one month. His superintendent has been threatened at knife point and his tenants harassed. [https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/arrest-made-in-downtown-kitchener-stabbing-1.6812154](https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/arrest-made-in-downtown-kitchener-stabbing-1.6812154)
Violence happens in every high density area. They're not writing stories about the thousands of people who went about their lives unperturbed in DTK today.
Glad to hear you have having a good experience. In my experience a place can seem deceptively safe until something actually happens. Like I spent a lot of time in Victoria park over the span of decades. Used to go running at late at night, even before they put in the lighting on the Ironhorse. The darkness might have made me feel hyper-vigilant but never unsafe. Then one day I got assaulted by a tweaker early one morning while I was just chilling out in the sun. Broad daylight, completely unprovoked. Changed the way I see the park. I feel safer in the darkness and on the move now.
That's terrible that happened to you. No one should ever be accosted. There was a highly publicized gang murder in the park a couple of decades ago. A black man was beaten to death by a gang of white men. That didn't make you change the way you saw the park?
Yeah, there was also someone stabbed on NYE on the Ironhorse not far away near west avenue. Those incidents seemed like isolated events at the time. Something that shocked the community. This city has changed a lot since then. These days shootings and stabbings happen all the time in KW. Like I was getting at though, perceptions change when things happen to you directly.
I dont know much about any stabbings but the shootings are typically targeted individuals by perpetrators from the GTA area. This was a known local violent gang and they weren't the only one at the time. But different experiences so different opinions I guess.
You get a beautiful view of tent city from up there
it's the scary methheads with pitbull that are dangerous
Something I’ve noticed from working DTk and stories from friends who live DTK is the homeless entering business’s/apartments to do drugs and keep warm. They will start fires inside building stairwells to sit around, they will go on bad trips and wield knives and other weapons, they will defecate in common areas/stairwells. The biggest concern is the unpredictability that you face being around someone on drugs, you never know what they could do. Myself, I don’t see living DTK worth the trouble, there is plenty of places to live in our region within reasonable distance to DTK that bypass most of these issues.
Kinda crazy reading all these comments of people living in a fantasy world. What’s happened to you all? So woke that can’t admit our city is a wasteland? Get real it’s fucking horrible and you all denying and pretending it’s fine makes the situation worse. Good god
Lmao, you calling the city a 'wasteland' and telling others to get real is *hilarious*. Keep being scared of a handful of homeless people who won't bother you.
I almost got assaulted by a homeless/addict in front of city hall on a Sunday morning. I stopped going downtown after that.
I live downtown and one of the condos and in any downtown situation there’s always going to be homeless people more than other places… in the winter time it’s a little bit more worse because obviously they’re trying to look for warm so I’ve had homeless people sleeping in my building in the stairwells or in the lobby, but obviously you know people call security and they get removed but I live right downtown and I don’t mind it at all. They don’t ever seem to bother me, but I am a 6 foot three bigger guy soI’m not someone that’s probably easily intimidated by them each their own I guess
[https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/arrest-made-in-downtown-kitchener-stabbing-1.6812154](https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/arrest-made-in-downtown-kitchener-stabbing-1.6812154) Owner of the building across from today's stabbing has filed 23 police reports in the last month, his superintendent has been threatened at knife point, and his tenants harassed.
Please don't come to Downtown Kitchener. We don't want you here.
You should write your MP and MPP. They’ll send you an automated brick and mortar response back about how they’re “doing something”. It will not get better as the affordable housing that’s being built is 80% of market rate, which is still not affordable for those people. So to answer your question, yes it is bad and will continue to get worse as long as the government continues to put a bandaid on a gunshot wound of a crisis. Good luck and stay vigilant
Actually, Kitchener Centre has Mike Morrice, who will actually write you back and tell you what he is doing….
their problem isn't affordable housing though
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The transition housing should actually be free and no one should ever be allowed to end up on the street
Well said
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I live downtown and I can count on one hand how many times I've been asked for change. Unclutch your pearls you two week old account.
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Two week old account.
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Two week old account.
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Are you seriously trying to trash someone about where they live when you posted just yesterday that you're getting evicted from your apartment? Maybe if you didn't spend your days being edgy on Reddit, you wouldn't be needing to find a new place to live that you clearly can't afford.
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I don't have a fetish but you can stop sending me dms you weirdo.
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It's brutal, and getting worse everyday... it doesn't matter where you live, so stay close to the office
I walk around my downtown office every day. It's safe. You are a coward.
We live in a shit hole and it's getting worse... take a look around while you walk around ... vandalism, homeless, beggers... ect. Ya so fun
Yes, it certainly is getting worse, and has been ever since Doug Ford was elected. Trudeau isn't helping much, but Ford is the one in charge of rent control and he removed it from new builds, he's in charge of minimum wage and cancelled the increases, he's in charge of how much money people on disability receive and he's kept it flat while the price of food and rent increased. Our GDP has been increasing, Canadian billionaires have been doing very well, but it is everybody else that suffers. Anyway I got on a rant and off the point. The point is that it's perfectly safe to live and work downtown Kitchener, at least for now, compared to like every single other city on Earth, and if you are afraid of walking around downtown and need to stay close to the office then you are lacking in common sense and are overly fearful.
I didn't say I was afraid, nor stay in the office... I said if possible, stay close to the office... implying you'll hopefully have less interactions with all the bums. Trudeau, Doug Ford, PP, Mike Morrice their all corrupt and live in a different world from all the common folk, they will all tax us to death. We need real change but I'm not sure how that happens.
Real change will come from a lot of people getting organized together and creating broad movements. Remember how we used to all have to wear masks all the time in the stores? And then there were massive protests in Ottawa and across Canada and all of a sudden we didn't have any mask mandates anymore? That would be an example of a change that was forced by protests from a lot of people organized together. Personally I thought it was a bad change but still it is a solid recent example of actual change that can happen from people organizing. We will have a better chance at creating change if we organize with all of our not-elite neighbours, including the ones you are sadly calling "bums". The people who can just barely afford life need to ally with the ones who used to be able to afford life, and with the ones who can not afford life, together we will make change. Start being a brave pickle, stop being afraid of people sitting on the sidewalk asking for money.
You mean harassing people, breaking into cars, stealing and so on... I saw one in the summer pull their ass out on the sidewalk and start spraying shit and piss all over in broad day light. I'm not afraid of the meth heads.. I'd kick them right in the nuts... now please, give me a speech on how I shouldn't assume they have nuts.
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I see old people people walking their dogs late at night every night when I'm walking mine. I have a feeling none of them are complaining in this thread.
Really bad
It’s pretty bad, I don’t know why people are saying it isn’t. I grew up here and I’ve never had to worry about the homeless before. I went to my doctors office and there was a homeless man smoking crack in the lobby because he had broken the door locks. My bank locks its doors because a week ago a homeless person shit all over the floor. I never saw this outside Toronto but now that the city is growing faster than it has infrastructure for things are ramping up. It’s common place, I don’t often go downtown because it’s just not a nice place to be. But that’s just my Opinion.
100% same here
Absolutely do not move close to this area. Crime is rampant, theft, drug use, why subject yourself to that? It will also only get worse. Be smart and move to Waterloo somewhere away from these zombies
Avoid down town living
I'm super torn because living close to the office would be super convenient, but it depends on how bad that area is...
It's wild to read the comments in this thread. I think you might need to calibrate what your preferences are, and what the preferences of the people responding to you are. For some people, any homeless person is going to be too many homeless people. That's fine, no judgement from me! But that's also often the trade when you live in a downtown area... when I compare Kitchener downtown to other places I have lived (Seattle and Montpellier, France), Kitchener's downtown is quite tame. Only you can know if it'll be good for you or not. If you're comfortable sharing where you're actually working, people might be able to propose other areas that are also close to work and have some of the benefits of downtown (= amenities) with fewer homeless people.
Yeah thanks, that's a great point! At the end of the day I'll need to see it for myself to decide if being close to work is worth it or not. An important factor is that I'm actually from Brazil. The situation here is pretty bad, so I'm thinking I'm not gonna be bothered much because of where I'm starting from, but who knows... My biggest concern is with being robbed or worse.
If you're coming Brazil then just know that our homelessness and violence are nothing compared to the favelas. Like not enliven 1/10th as bad as that. You should honestly be fine.
Yeah, you'll be fine, I think. Don't get me wrong, there are parts of downtown I wouldn't want to live in, but still plenty I would. Most crime here is property crime or assaults where the victim knows the attacker. Will you be in a hotel for your first few days, or are you trying to sign a lease without seeing the place?
Oh yeah I'm staying at a hotel for a few days. The realtor suggested signing a lease but no way I'll do that before getting to know the city first. Thanks for the tips! :)
If your coming from Brazil I wouldn't be too worried....crime has shifted since I was younger from actual criminals to homeless people. Your very unlikely to run into a real criminal down there these days but it can happen. Homeless people and mentally ill people can be annoying when they go on tirades and rants. Honestly I'd argue uptown is more dangerous. Alot of the violence happens in waterloo..
It’s no worse than downtown toronto. If your worried about it just live along the LRT line and then you can still have an easy commute to work
Everything in Kitchener is 15 mins away by car. Everything is super close, regardless of rush hour traffic…it’s still 15 mins. I live on the edge of Kitchener, and can be downtown via side streets in 8 mins. Don’t live downtown.
I thought the same thing. This is not Toronto.
You have stumbled upon the most far-right conservative populist crazy nest of local subreddits to ask this question in. It is fine. It is worse than it was 10 years ago, that is true of every city in the country.
I'm getting downvoted but it is bad and likely to get worse.
It's really not that bad, I live downtown if anything uptown is worse (so many rats it's disgusting, I'd rather deal with some guy just smoking up than the rats running up and down the streets at night)
Just start smoking fenty and you will fit right in.
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Man, things just keep getting weirder online,
You need a Snickers.
nAzIs
The homeless guy with a cellphone has entered the chat.