City council will not apply for funding from the federal government to help cover the cost of housing refugee and asylum claimants in Windsor.
During Monday's meeting, council was asked by Matthew House to submit a conditional application to secure $3.7 million in federal funds over two years under the Interim Housing Assistance Program (IHAP).
To unlock the funding, the city would need to provide $232,000.
The request failed as council was reluctant to submit the application over concerns around federal downloading and that the city could end up being financially responsible for housing refugee and asylum claimants in the future.
Matthew House, a non-profit organization, would have used the funding to purchase its current facilities—one in Forest Glade and one in West Windsor—freeing up money currently paid to lease the buildings to help provide more shelter options to its clients.
The federal government is currently housing refugees in hotels but wants to move to smaller organizations like Matthew House.
Mike Morency, Executive Director of Matthew House, says past experience with the federal government has tainted council and administration's views of the federal government as a partner.
"We can't allow those negative experiences from program A to stop us from bringing $3.7 million into our community from program B," he says.
Morency says he understands as a taxpayer the desire to avoid federal downloading.
"However, I consider the vote very shortsighted because this is a very limited opportunity. You can't argue the return on investment. $232,000 over two years to bring $3.7 million to our community," he says.
Currently, the federal government is responsible for providing all funding for housing the asylum claimants and feeding them, but a change to the funding program will require municipalities to shoulder costs in the future.
Immigration, Refugee, Citizen Canada (IRCC) announced $1.1 billion for 2024 to 2027 to help with the situation, but there will be increased cost-sharing requirements and a need for municipal or provincial funding in 2025 and 2026, with full funding required in 2027 and later.
Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens says this is a responsibility of the federal government, calling it a very slippery slope for the city.
"They have offered this unique service, renting hotels, paying for people to stay in hotels for several years now. They're paying for the three square meals a day, and now they want to evict those people and have them come to the city and be funded by the city, at least partially. No, thank you. City council en masse said no to that; we don't want to step into those shoes," he says.
The city is currently housing nearly 730 asylum claimants in two hotels after they were moved there by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) in January 2023, but the IRCC has issued departure notices for the asylum claimants by March 3, raising concerns about increased homelessness and pressure on local shelters.