Concern is being raised over the aggressive nature of some members of the homeless population in downtown Windsor.
It comes after two seperate stabbing incidents in the city core over the Labour Day long weekend. In one case, a suspect has been arrested while police are still working to apprehend a suspect in the second case.
While there is no evidence linking either case to the homeless population, concern is being raised over safety issues involving that section of the community in the city core.
Joe Mikhail, Director of Mikhail Holdings, owns several commercial properties downtown including a building at the corner of Riverside Drive and Ouellette Avenue.
Mikhail told AM800's The Shift with Patty Handysides that in all the years he's been downtown, he's never seen it this bad, ever.
He says he recognizes most of the homeless people but the ones they're seeing now are new and don't look like they're from Windsor.
"Are they being shipped over to this area? Are they being dropped off? Because they're new and they're not normal," he says. "They're not the normal homeless people you used to see, these are very aggressive individuals and intimidating to people."
Mikhail says some of the now downtown homeless start off acting timid.
"You're seeing this individual who tries to give the appearance of being down and out. When they're not respected in the form of money being donated, they become very aggressive to those individuals," he says.
Mikhail believes by allowing these types of individuals to stay, it produces other elements of crime beyond harassment.
"Just last week, one of my properties, for the sake of taking $12.50 worth of copper, they destroyed $22,500 worth of air conditioning units from us. Completely destroyed to take $12 from us," he adds.
Mikhail's comments are being echoed by Misty Sergi, owner of The Gifting Tree on Park Street West , who says you used to know and recognize some of the homeless in the core.
"I found in the last year or two, the influx that we're getting from out of city, of people coming down here, it's just opioid people," she says. "They're not coming down here to get jobs, they're drug users. You see different faces all the time and you don't recognize them. I've had them come into my store and they're very intimidating."
Sergi lives downtown and says she knows a lot of the homeless who she believes are not the problem.
"The bad homeless is a completely different story. They are so whacked out on drugs, I can't even tell you. They're taking off their clothes, they're screaming, they're yelling, they're trying to get into businesses, into residences. This is what's going on," she adds.
Windsor mayor Drew Dilkens believes more supports from upper levels of government are needed to deal with issues in the city's downtown core.
Dilkens says he speaks to the acting chief of police on the issue numerous times a week and they're trying to provide safety and security for everyone.
The Windsor police Problem Oriented Policing Unit has been dedicated to the downtown to help deal with some of the situations they're seeing down there, but Dilkens says the other part of the equation is support for mental health and addiction.
With files from Rob Hindi