The Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) is reaching out to the provincial government for guidance on how to handle homeless encampments, as well as more help to house and support people.
The association says cities and towns across the province saw at least 1,400 homeless encampments in their communities last year.
The number comes from an AMO survey of municipal service managers and is contained in a policy paper the association has released in advance of their conference next week, during which it is hoping for some commitments from Ontario.
Speaking on AM800's The Shift, Andrew Daher, Commissioner of Human & Services says when the City of Windsor took part in the survey, two known encampments were identified in the region.
"Our numbers definitely fluctuate based on the season, so clearly you can know that during the winter months we have a lot less encampments, however in the spring and summer, we could probably see up to, you know, ten or so within the Windsor-Essex region. But we're very, very fortunate in Windsor that encampments are not a significant issue like we're seeing in other municipalities."
Daher says encampments are defined as three or more individuals and the Windsor encampments that were identified at the time of the survey had a total of six people.
He says our low numbers can be attributed to the outreach team through Family Services Windsor-Essex who engage unhoused individuals on a daily basis.
"They have conversations with them to ensure that they are going to a shelter at night, do they have a place to stay? They're asking them questions and they're very familiar with these individuals, and I can tell you we have a lot of success as a result diverting individuals to shelters or to family and friends for that night, so that they're not sleeping rough outside, and that there aren't encampments within the city."
He says more and more seniors are experiencing homelessness in part due to maybe not being able to afford their home anymore or even being renovicted.
"It's becoming a crisis and so that's why this report is very very important and this is why the work that we do within the municipality is very important to advocate to upper levels of government that we need more funding, and we need to be more proactive in our funding."
AMO is also calling on the province to let people receiving welfare or disability support payments collect shelter benefits, even if they are homeless, which would boost their income by about $400 to $500 a month.
Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy said he will continue to work with municipalities, including on homelessness, and said he has 35 meetings scheduled over two days of the conference.
-With files from The Canadian Press