Ken moved to Stratford in 1964 as a teenager—and it’s been where he’s called home ever since. For much of Ken’s career, he worked as a contract professor and moved around a lot, traversing across Canada and the United States, “I would spend a few years here, a few years there,” he reminisced, “so I always rented. I just never bought a home.” About twenty years ago, through a nearby teaching contract, Ken returned home to Stratford. He has since retired and is here to stay.

Ken’s family home still stands in Stratford, though it is not his anymore—his father decided it was best to sell as he was aging. With the family home gone, Ken was again searching for a rental. Having been away for so long, he didn’t know the state of Stratford’s housing scarcity. Thankfully, Ken knew someone who knew someone, “I have no idea what I would have done if that connection hadn’t been made,” Ken remarked, “I was lucky.”

Ken’s apartment is on the third floor of an apartment building, and he considers a future move to the ground level for accessibility one day, but given the current state of things, he isn’t sure if he could make it happen with the rental increase that would likely follow.

Community and volunteering are near and dear to Ken. He works with an impressive list of local charities and non-profits—many of which focus on housing in one way or another. Ken has particular admiration for a local organization that worked with Syrian refugees, finding them housing and helping families to access community services. Ken has seen first-hand the amazing results of when we work together to get things done. “I have found the community in Stratford incredibly supportive to these [Syrian] families,” said Ken, “Stratford is surrounding them with support. There was even someone who offered to rent them a house! Otherwise, who knows what would have happened? A home is the first thing that is needed.”

Stratfordites are willing to help and if we are to continue looking out for each other, housing will need to be a more frequent conversation point. Through Ken’s work with local charities, he sees the strength of Stratford, but he worries that housing won’t always be available to those who need it.

When asked what Ken would say if he had an audience, he said, “As a tenant, I see a lot of houses going up, but they aren’t geared toward local people that don’t already own a home. We need more rentals. We need to encourage the development of rentals to serve the local attainable need.”