A pair of funding announcements by the province aimed at addressing housing issues facing vulnerable populations in Windsor.
Steve Clark, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, was in Windsor Tuesday to announce nearly $1.8 million in funding to help create supportive housing units for vulnerable populations including Indigenous peoples, people with disabilities and those at risk of homelessness.
The funding will be used to transform an existing building in the 3100-block of Sandwich Street into 26 supportive housing units.
Andrew Dowie, Progressive Conservative MPP for Windsor-Tecumseh, took part in the announcement and says the site on Sandwich Street involves the conversion of an existing office building.
"It was underused, it went through a lot of uses over the years and the need for housing is acute. We need to work together on homelessness prevention and giving people a roof over their head," he says.
Clark also announced the province is investing over $3 million for the acquisition and renovation of a residential building at 7365 Wyandotte St. E. in Windsor to create 11 permanent affordable housing units for people experiencing chronic homelessness.
Dowie says the site on Wyandotte Street is an existing apartment building that will be updated to be more modern and as efficient as possible.
"Happily because of the age of the building, it's got great bones and beyond that, the spaces are a big more generous than what you would normally see on the market right now. It's destined to be a great home for many, many families," he says.
Both project involve using existing buildings which Dowie calls the fastest way to bring housing online by using existing housing stock and updating them.
"You're able to forgo a certain degree of planning process," he says. "You have a lot of ingredients that go into that building construction that you don't have to source from new places, we have those supply chain issues across the world at the moment. It's just an effective way at bringing housing online faster."
The project on Wyandotte Street will create longer-term housing solutions for the community and is in alignment with the Home Together: Windsor Essex Housing and Homelessness Master Plan approved by Windsor City Council.