The Salvation Army Windsor Centre of Hope has announced the temporary expansion of emergency shelter services for winter 2025/26.
The centre says with financial support from the City of Windsor, they were able to increase capacity for single men and men who stay with pets, effective Monday, Dec. 8, 2025.
The expanded measures include 16 new beds added on the second floor, beds arranged across several large rooms with four beds per room, two additional pet-friendly rooms added, and additional staffing hours added in the kitchen and cleaning departments.
Executive Director of the Windsor Centre of Hope Jason Linton says the shelter is a 24/7 operation.
"We presently have 44 beds, and we're expanding to 60 emergency shelter beds, and the idea of this expansion, it's temporary; we're going to the end of March to ensure people are kept out of the cold and have warm meals that are available to them throughout the winter," says Linton.
He says the shelter has temporarily expanded services in the past.
"Last year was a little bit of a different situation where we had encampments, and we were trying to deal with the encampments," he says. "I don't think that's the case this year, but at the end of the day, there are still plenty of people who are out in the cold, and we want to make sure they have a resource, come in and have warmth and warm meals."
Linton says the temporary expansion of shelter services is for single men and single men with pets.
"We actually opened a couple new pet rooms as well, and that's always in high demand, and the pet rooms have filled up quickly as part of those new shelter beds that we're opening, but we expect to see an increase in people using this over the next few months," says Linton.
The Windsor Centre of Hope is located on Church Street near Park Avenue West in downtown Windsor.
The temporary measures will remain in place until Mar. 31, 2026.