Ward 9 councillor exploring funding options for additional beds at the Welcome Centre Shelter for Women and Families

One of the family rooms at the new Welcome Centre shelter for women and families, located at 500 Tuscarora in Windsor. June 23, 2022.

A member of Windsor City Council wants to find a way to bring some shelter beds at the centre of a public dispute permanently online.

Ward 9 Councillor Kieran McKenzie plans to introduce a motion at the June 8 council meeting seeking to permanently fund additional beds at the Welcome Centre Shelter for Women and Families.

Earlier this month, the shelter issued a letter that said it is unable to meet growing demand for beds without stable funding, stating a $192,000 request earlier this month to add 12 beds was turned down by the City of Windsor.

The centre claimed that as a result, eight temporary beds that were added in January to address cold-weather service would be phased out altogether.

The public statement was met with a release from Mayor Drew Dilkens a day later, who said, “2026 is an election year. Funny things happen in election years. Yesterday was one of those instances.”

His statement went on to say that the city denied the latest funding request because all municipal, provincial, and federal funding allocations for the current fiscal year have already been committed but that the city would reconsider if additional upper-level government funding becomes available.

The Welcome Centre responded with another posting on May 25, stating it found the mayor’s statement “unsettling.”

Ward 9 Councillor Kieran McKenzie says he believes there is a significant need to address issues at the Welcome Centre to find a way to bring the beds permanently online.

“I recognize that there’s a funding gap that needs to be addressed in order to be able to make that happen,” he says. “I’m going to spend the next week or two leading up to our next council meeting looking at and talking to our administration about available pots of money, where there are uncommitted funds to potentially look to fund the beds that have been requested and the funds that have been requested.”

McKenzie says he doesn’t want to commit to an outcome.

“Certainly I have some work to do in terms of those conversations with our administration; there will potentially be a decision that will come forward for council to make with respect to looking at whatever funds could potentially help us to where we need to go,” he says.

McKenzie says the need always exceeds the capacity to meet the full scope of demands of the community, but he wants to explore the full range of possibilities.

“When I hear of women and children being homeless, I feel like I have a duty to respond. I don’t think anybody wants to see those situations persist,” he says.

The Welcome Centre Shelter for Women and Families is located at 500 Tuscarora Avenue in downtown Windsor, offering shelter services for those experiencing homelessness. It has beds for up to 32 single women and 21 families.