The executive director of the Downtown Mission said it was shocking to see data of the 2024 Point-in-Time (PiT) Count presented at Windsor city council Monday.
The report showed 672 people are currently experiencing homelessness in Windsor-Essex -- a dramatic jump from the 251 counted in 2021.
While the PiT Count captures a single night - in this case, October 24, 2024 - it included people in shelters, transitional housing, domestic violence shelters, encampments and even institutions with no housing plan on discharge.
The PiT Count report showed top reasons for losing housing were found to include financial hardship, unaffordable options, landlord conflict and relationship breakdown.
Rukshini Ponniah-Goulin said she and her counterparts at other shelters and service providers across the city have been discussing the noticeable increase for over a year now as they do their best to try and meet the demand they're seeing daily.
She said the Mission has been welcoming approximately 150 individuals into its day programs, feeding approximately 80 people a day through its food bank and shelters about 120 people overnight.
"We are not usually in those high 80s, 90s, up in shelter at this time of year. We are usually around 60 or 70, we're seeing an increase in the need even now during the summer, which is again typically a slower time for the Mission," Ponniah-Goulin said.
Ponniah-Goulin said there are other factors contributing to homelessness in addition to addiction and mental health.
"Maybe they're a couple and don't want to separate, staying a men's shelter or women's shelter, so they could potentially be sleeping outside, or they are individuals who maybe are older and have been priced out of an apartment that they were renting previously, so now they have to look for shelter," she said.
Ponniah-Goulin said the Mission has noticed a decrease in the support they were previously seeing from the community in terms of donors, affecting operations.
She said some of the contributing factors to decreasing donations include the local unemployment rate, trade negotiations, and the increasing costs of household goods as donors ensuring their own needs are being met.
"Some people have unfortunately either reduced their donations, or taken a break from their monthly donation and saying 'we'll come back'. Some have thankfully come back over the last few months, but there's some individuals who I say we lost earlier in the year, that we haven't seen come back yet," Ponniah-Goulin said.
On any given day, the Downtown Mission provides an average of 400 meals, and Ponniah-Goulin said the shelter beds, meal programs, food bank, Phoenix Program (Addiction Recovery Program), and the Windsor Youth Centre programs are all at capacity.
The Windsor Youth Centre, a critical drop-in program for youth aged 16 to 24, has seen a significant surge, now serving an average of 1,100 youth each month.
During the council meeting, council passed a motion from Ward 8’s Gary Kaschak directing administration to send letters to upper levels of government as part of ongoing advocacy around funding and support.
Ward 6 Coun. Jo-Anne Gignac added a friendly amendment, calling for new efforts to gather better data on why people are losing housing -- not just that they are.
-With files from CTV Windsor's Travis Fortnum