As Windsor hunkered down for storms, some sought shelter in a parking garage, woman says

Some Windsorites, like Nicole Price, were not able to find shelter in Windsor, Ont., last week during strong storms that left vulnerable residents scrambling to stay warm and safe. 

Price said shelters were at capacity, which left her having to look for a place to warm up and dry enough to sleep.

"Which was hard because nobody wants homeless people sleeping anywhere near the place," she added.

The shelter Price said she was able to reach was an underground parking lot that was open.

 "[There] was like 15 people," she said.

"We stayed there because we couldn't move out quite through the water... we had to push our our shopping cart, all this stuff got soaked," said Price. 

Shelters can only do so much, Downtown Mission says

The City of Windsor has opened up cooling and warming spaces for people to stay safe in the past. CBC News reached out to inquire if the city offers any services to help the homeless residents during other severe weather events, but did not hear back. 

The Downtown Mission shelter says 88 beds are open to the public every night but once the beds are full, they can't accept any more people. 

"In terrible weather, either in storms like [Thursday] night or in winter storms, we can open up our lobby," said Matt Johnson, director of programs and services at the Downtown Mission. 

"People can at least get out of the weather until it blows over." 

He said the shelter's beds were full by about 11:30 p.m.

Johnson said shelters will never be enough.

"No matter how many beds you have, no matter how much accommodation you have, there's going to be people outside."

"Until we get more affordable housing, there's going to be people outside," he added. 

Price hopes Windsor adopts the idea of tiny homes, like the ones in Hamilton, Ont.

"It's like your own little apartment. You have a bed, you have Internet, it's somewhere warm to sleep."

"You don't have to worry about where you're gonna go when it's storming out or, struggling to find that place to actually sleep at night."