The councillor for Ward 2 is speaking out about the proposed location for Windsor's Homelessness and Housing Help Hub.
Fabio Constante's opposition is based on two things predominately: first, he believes it isn't consistent with the spirit and intent laid out in the 2022 Glos report. Second, he believes the land expropriation will be a timely endeavour when the city already has land that could work.
The City of Windsor announced the permanent home of H4 will be located on property in the 700-block of Wellington Avenue near Wyandotte Street West on Tuesday.
The seven acre site is expected to include enough space to develop at least 64 one-bedroom permanent supportive housing units, common spaces for programming, services, and other amenities.
Costante says the Glos report was built over extensive community consultations, best practises, research, and empirical evidence by experts in this area.
"It was designed to be a hub and slope type of model, the site that's being proposed locates the hub at the outer rim of the wheel. The hub should be more centrally located with others shelters and services feeding into the hub, and supporting each other to help those that are most vulnerable in our community experiencing homelessness, mental health and addiction," he stated.
He says expropriation is a relatively time consuming and expansive process, and in his view, there are other sites that would be more consistent with the Glos report.
"Didn't require the level of investment and were much more readily available, i.e. even some city-owned sites. To me, based on the Glos report and it's findings, and based on the high end cost and risk involved I voted against the site that's being proposed."
Costante says this is a very important decision, one of if not the biggest that this term of council will make, because of the challenges the city is facing when it comes to homelessness, mental health and addictions.
In addition, Costante stated his opposition has nothing to do with the location being on the boundary of Wards 2 and 3.
"If this was on the boundary of Ward 3 and 4, within that two kilometre radius that was being proposed by the consultants report, I would have the same amount of passion and concern. If we're choosing to locate the hub at the outer rim, anywhere on that outer rim, I would share the same amount of concern especially if you have to go through an expropriation process to do that," he said.
The project is expected to cost $50-million, requiring the support of the provincial and federal governments, and provincial officials are already reviewing the project submission.