A member of city council feels downtown Windsor is shouldering the weight of homelessness, mental health, and addiction issues, and he says, 'the shoulders are about to break.'
Ward 3 Councillor Renaldo Agostino expressed frustration over the ongoing problems in the city core caused by people dealing with those issues and the proximity of services and homeless shelters in and around downtown.
Agostino has asked city administration to prepare a report for the next meeting of the council on how other municipalities determine the location of emergency homeless shelters.
Agostino says there is no question about it that downtown Windsor is doing the heavy lifting not only for the city but the entire region when it comes to homelessness, addiction, and mental health.
"There was a point in time where these shelters were placed in our downtowns because that's where the issues were," he says. "Now the tables have turned, and downtowns are the destination point for those suffering from homelessness because that's where the services have been placed."
He also asked administration during Monday's council meeting to reexamine a proposal contained in a 2022 consultant's report that a permanent Homelessness and Housing Help Hub be placed within a two-kilometre radius of downtown Windsor.
The city's Homelessness and Housing Help Hub (H4), currently in the former Water World at Wyandotte Street East, was opened in 2020, but the city has been exploring for a location to build an expanded site that could also house support services.
Agostino says other cities are doing different things to tackle the same problem Windsor has.
"For example, Guelph. They're looking at moving their shelters out of the downtown core," he says. "I'm sure downtowns everywhere are facing the same issue. I'm not saying anyone out there is not doing their job. I just think we've been trying to do something that, really, it's come to the conclusion, it's not working."
Other shelters within the core include the Downtown Mission, the Salvation Army, and the Welcome Centre for Women and Families.
Agostino says downtown can not bear this anymore.
"Unless we're going to make a decision that downtown Windsor is going to be the epicentre for all of this and no matter what happens, we're going to keep stuffing it downtown, which I do not believe some ulterior force is trying to push; I just think that's the way it's been going everywhere, but now it's time for us as a community to step up and say, 'We want our downtown back.,'" he says.
A report is expected back at the May 26 meeting of the council.