The City of Windsor is getting funding to help wind down homeless encampments in public spaces.
The Ontario government has announced Windsor will receive $742,000 as part of $75.5 million being directed to municipalities across the province to help remove encampments in public spaces by creating more emergency shelter spaces and affordable housing units.
The province says these accommodations will provide vulnerable people with appropriate short- and long-term housing alternatives to encampments and help restore safety and order to Ontario's parks and other public spaces.
Premier Doug Ford first announced the funding in December 2024 as part of a larger announcement around plans to introduce legislation to help municipalities clear homeless encampments that will include stronger trespass laws and fines or jail time for illegal drug use in public.
The legislation will also allow police and provincial officers to ticket or arrest people using illegal drugs in public, with penalties of up to $10,000 or six months in jail.
It is unclear when these measures would take effect, as the Ontario legislature is on its winter break, and Ford plans to call an election on Wednesday, with Ontario voters heading to the polls on Feb. 27, more than a year before the June 2026 fixed election date.
In November 2024, more than a dozen mayors, including Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens, signed a letter asking Ford for tougher laws and asking him to consider using the notwithstanding clause as cities struggle with how to handle growing encampments.
Invoking the rarely used notwithstanding clause, or Section 33 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, would prevent a court from stepping in.
