The executive director of the Brentwood Recovery Home in Windsor says the pressures facing the addictions treatment centre are "enormous."
Elizabeth Dulmage says they have more people needing and wanting their help than they have government funding to support them.
Dulmage says they're facing inflationary pressures like everyone else and additional pressure as there are a lot of people in the community who are homeless, suffering from mental health and addiction.
"We do our best to hook them up to support from alumni who will take them to AA and other groups to be that buddy system," she says. "The reality is we will still lose an awful lot of them. This is not a disease that waits patiently for treatment."
Brentwood currently has a six-week wait list for bed space and its addictions and mental health programming.
Dulmage says the reality is that the ministry funding is short of what it actually costs them to have a person in a treatment bed—a funding shortfall of around $100 per day, per bed—money that must be made up through donations and fundraising efforts like the Brentwood Dream Home Lottery.
She says asking people to wait on a list is a challenge.
Dulmage says for a fraction of what it costs to keep someone in a hospital bed or visiting an emergency department, we could be treating them here.
"We have capacity for 200 beds. We have funding for 43, and even that funding isn't enough to cover the whole costs," she says.
On Thursday, the treatment centre launched the 33rd annual Brentwood Dream Home Lottery with the money raised needed to help close the funding gap and operate the programs and services at Brentwood.
The centre is located at 2335 Dougall Ave. in Windsor.