The City of Windsor is working towards ending homelessness locally.
During a Community Services and Parks Standing Committee meeting on Wednesday, August 3, housing hubs and architectural feasibly were discussed.
In 2020 the Homelessness Housing Help Hub (H4) facility began as an emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the former Windsor Water World.
The H4 location in its current location is considered a temporary solution and may cease operations.
The Community Services and Parks Standing Committee approved looking for new sites for the housing hub, researching the viability of certain locations, a draft motion requesting funds from the provincial government to increase capital and operating investments, and to reduce the number of funds from the municipal tax base.
The Capital Budget contains $200,000 that is approved for preliminary studies for the Housing Hub.
Councillor Jim Morrison says homelessness is a major issue in Windsor and all across Ontario.
"I'm really proud to say that we are moving forward with something way more comprehensive than just putting up another shelter for people to sleep in with no support," he says. "The idea of an H4 Hub is that all other supports will be there to help people move people from homelessness to actual housing."
Morrison says the former Water World location is off the table.
"This project will be considerably bigger than that and COVID really brought out the need for this because at that time there was really no place to go, they were being locked out of the mission. It really brought to light that we need to come up with a full wrap-around support system for all of these people."
He says there is no simple solution to the homelessness issue.
"We've seen it on Detroit Street where good willing people that wanted to help out basically put people into a building with no support and it becomes a disaster. These people need support, it could be for mental health or addiction to permanently get out of homelessness."
The facility would be a fully operational housing hub with a range of in-house supports that will be close to emergency shelters, health supports, harm reduction pharmacies, and other core community agencies.
The matter still needs to go to city council for final approval.
Files from AM800's Rob Hindi