City council has voted unanimously in favour of an over $3.2 million plan aimed at revitalizing and improving safety in downtown Windsor.
After a seven-hour meeting that included over 30 delegations, council approved the Strengthen the Core—Downtown Windsor Revitalization plan.
The decision to approve the additional $3.2 million in spending in the 2024 budget will result in the city's final tax rate being increased 0.70 percent to 4.61 percent.
The average taxpayer will be paying $23 more on their 2024 property tax bill.
Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens says what you saw after all the delegations and all the questions was unanimous support from council for the plan.
"They agree that we need to move forward with a robust plan to try and change the conversation of our downtown to bring more people to live downtown," he says. "To give those business owners who are employing people and paying property taxes a fighting chance to succeed. And to create that downtown that we used to have and want to see again."
The plan is heavily focused on addressing addicition and mental health issues facing those in the core through policing and improved social service access.
The spending plan will be focused on several areas to help address the issues in the core:
- Just over $1.3 million will be spent to add 12 more Windsor police officers to address drug use and disorderly conduct downtown while working with health and social services, along with discouraging loitering and panhandling on medians and in front of empty storefronts and residential buildings in the downtown core.
- Nearly $1.4 million will be spent to cover expanded hours of operation and staffing at the Homelessness and Housing Help Hub (H4), ensuring people who are unhoused have a facility they can access prior to the opening of overnight emergency shelters.
- $217,000 will be spent to add more auxiliary police officers in downtown parks and on trails.
- Over $81,000 will be spent to hire a dedicated Ward 3 bylaw property standards enforcement officer, and council will be looking to create or modify existing bylaws to address blight.
- Just over $87,000 will be spent to hire an economic development project lead.
The city will also spend $1 million, previously approved, to add lighting, additional surveillance, and the relocation of benches, bringing the total cost of the plan to over $4.2 million.
Ward 10 Councillor Jim Morrison says this plan is solid, but it will be a tough task, and there is always the potential it will not succeed.
"To do nothing is not an option that I would ever support," he says. "As I've said before, 'we need to save our city right now.'"
Mayor Dilkens says that when you walk around the streets and you watch some of the behaviours on display, they're not criminal in nature, but they have the effect of sterilizing an area because people just don't feel safe.
"The plan tonight is about changing that conversation, about getting safety and security right, it's what they did in Detroit," he says. "And then working on cleanliness and activations to bring our downtown back to the place we want it to be."
Ward 1 Councillor Fred Francis says he thinks this is something we have to do.
"This is not the silver bullet or the magic wand; this is not going to fix whatever issues we're facing downtown overnight; it's not going to happen," he says. "But it is the beginning, and we're going to build on that beginning."
Ward 9 Councillor Kieran McKenzie says we are facing an unprecedented health and human crisis in our community; we know that.
"I've never seen what I've seen in our community, and I'm sad to say that. I think today we're taking concrete steps to make things better," he says.
The overall plan features seven proposed initial action items focused on creating safe streets, enforcing property standards, seeking improved wrap-around programs for vulnerable community members, incentives to bring more businesses downtown, and an improved promotion of the core.