The Downtown Mission's plan to relocate to a site on McDougall Street and Shepherd Street is in jeopardy.
Speaking on AM800's The Dan MacDonald Show, executive director Ron Dunn says the deal between the mission and the property owner dies Wednesday.
Dunn says since the failed transaction for the former library branch on Ouellette Avenue, the mission has received no assistance from the city and has received nothing but blockage from city hall.
As heard on AM800 news last October, the mission was looking to build a $7.2-million facility at the site.
He says the situation has turned into a "pissing contest" between he and Mayor Drew Dilkens.
"If the mayor doesn't like me great, we don't have to like each other to do what's in the best interest of those that we're both trying to serve," he says. "Every citizen of Windsor, homeless or otherwise, deserves the mayor's best intentions and deserves my best intention as the person dealing with homelessness. This doesn't have to be an us versus them, in fact I don't want it to be."
Dunn says he has sent letters to the city but it's radio silence.
"They've created this barrier, this wall, questioning our leadership, I take offence to that, not for me but for my board who's a dedicated group of people," says Dunn. "We've been doing this work for a long time and we do it without assistance, in fact I've said to the city, if you're not going to help us, stop hurting us."
He says almost a year ago, the mission had purchased a former school to relocate the homeless shelter to but lost out on that deal after the city implemented an interim control bylaw.
The mission backed out of a $10-million purchase and renovation of the former central branch of Windsor Public Library on Ouellette Avenue in February 2020 after it failed to secure a mortgage.