Windsor city council approves plan to create large-scale housing hub

Trueman Dow has been living on the streets for about three months and says while he's happy the City of Windsor has approved a permanent housing hub, he says the timeline is "a life sentence" for people experiencing homelessness. 

On Tuesday, Windsor City Council unanimously approved a more comprehensive and permanent version of a temporary hub that opened in the former Water World building, aimed at addressing homelessness in the city.

The city expects the hub to open in five years, but Dow feels that is too long.

"Five years might as well be a life sentence for most people," said Dow. "They go into the drugs, they end up everywhere."

The current hub located at the former Water World site on Wyandotte Street East opened in 2020 as a shelter during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Tuesday, council approved a motion for administration to search for a permanent and large location to offer the services. 

"This shows that our council is concerned and wants to help our community and help those who are homeless," said Rukshini Ponniah-Goulin, executive director of the Downtown Mission of Windsor.

The city's administration will now look for locations of up to 100,000 sq. ft. The final location will include affordable housing for people experiencing homelessness, and other supports. Services for people involved in the justice system, and people with mental health issues or substance addictions will be within two kilometres of the hub.

A city report says people who need these types of services are falling through the cracks.

The housing hub plan is a collaborative effort among city organizations, including the Downtown Mission.

"We're willing to work with the city and all of the other partners at the hub to make sure the individuals who are in those transitional units will be supported and served so that they don't end up back in a homeless situation," said Ponniah-Goulin.

The city found that on one night in March 2021, 251 people were homeless. This is a 27 per cent increase from 2018.

Dow said he liked the idea of the city planning to offer Windsorites affordable housing, but hopes that the city follows through with it.

"That's the biggest problem right now; affordable housing," he said. "There are rooms on Kijiji for $1,100. We can't afford $1,100; we're lucky to get $600. That's most people on the streets and even then, they don't even get that."

"Windsor is not going to get any better without [the hub]. It's not going to get any better without the housing complexes"

The costs of creating the hub are not known, but the city said they will be reaching out to higher levels of government to request funding for the new hub.