Affordable housing is a growing concern for many support services throughout Windsor-Essex and they gathered at the Ciociaro Club Thursday to talk about it.
The Homeless Coalition of Windsor-Essex County hosted an even that drew more than 100 politicians, frontline workers and residents for a lengthy chat at the Housing and Homelessness Information Forum.
A panel of social service workers presented data and answered questions, then there was Mbonisi Zikhali, his expertise is in knowing what it's like to live on the streets.
The 36-year-old University of Windsor student isn't far removed from two-years of trying to find a place to sleep for the night. He says it's hard to talk about the stigma attached to being homeless, but humanizing an issue that can happen to anybody is more important than being comfortable.
"People are falling off now, with the housing crisis, there are more people waiting than there are homeless people," he says. "What happens if one day they all wake up and they find themselves on the street? Now you've got three times the problem."
Zikhali tells AM800 News living without an address will give anyone perspective, and that's what people need to truly get behind a solution.
"I'm no longer at a place where I can be too complacent about life, where I can view someone else and say I'm better than that person, I'm not homeless," he says. "It's that kind of mentality now, a huge lack of empathy, and that's where the poverty is, the poverty is in people themselves."
Windsor's Downtown Mission was his home off and on while he was trying to get back on his feet. Zikhali had already obtained a degree in journalism before he fell on hard times and wants people to think before they assume someone is homeless because of something they did.
"People that they don't think much about, or the people that they have distain for, there's actually a whole lot of light," says Zikhali. "Some of those young people, it only takes someone listening so they can find their own light."
The coalition is hopeful that the more than two-dozen candidates in attendance will make the 10-year Housing and Homelessness Plan a priority in the upcoming Municipal Election on Oct. 22.
There are currently more than 4,000 people on the waiting list for affordable housing in Windsor-Essex.