Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens and Essex County Warden Hilda MacDonald are at odds over how to cover a funding gap that threatened services at a homeless centre in Leamington.
County Votes for One-Time Funding
The county ultimately voted Wednesday to contribute $70,000 in one-time funding to help prevent service reductions at the Essex County Homelessness Hub, while urging Windsor to match the contributions.
The county’s one-time funding commitment is contingent on the city agreeing to match the contribution. However, Dilkens said the city does not have additional funding to contribute.
Funding Pressures Identified
A report to county council flagged about $140,000 in funding pressures that could affect operations at the homelessness hub in Leamington.
Natasha Sheeler, the county’s director of health and community services, told council the shortfall stems in part from notification by the City of Windsor this spring that $70,000 in federal Reaching Home funding would not be available for the 2026-27 fiscal year, leaving a gap in support for the overnight program.
To manage the pressure, administration proposed a temporary suspension of overnight services from July 1 to Sept. 1, a period staff identified as having lower demand.
“We recognize that there will still be impacts to individuals who rely on these services,” Sheeler said.
Family Services Windsor-Essex (FSWE), which operates the hub, also identified an additional $70,000 pressure tied to daytime operations and on-site security costs required to “maintain safe service delivery for clients, staff and community partners,” the report said.
Proposed Service Reductions
FSWE proposed reducing daytime hours from July 1 to Oct. 31, shifting from seven-day-per-week service to Monday-to-Friday operations from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., before returning to full seven-day coverage after the reduction period.
The report said about 19 people per day would be affected by the loss of weekend daytime access, based on 2025 data.
Dilkens Criticizes County Share
Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens said the county receives roughly 10 per cent of provincial funding allocated to the city — $2.4 million out of $25 million — but it only has about six per cent of the region’s overall homeless population.
“They seem to get more of a share than the burden that they carry,” Dilkens told reporters at an unrelated media event outside city hall on Tuesday.
He said the city’s homelessness funding from senior governments has not increased this year and questioned where additional money for the county hub would come from.
“I get it. They want more money,” he said. “Where’s that money coming from? That’s the question that needs to be asked.”
Dilkens added the disagreement is “not a war between city and county.”
MacDonald Defends County Needs
Essex County Warden Hilda MacDonald criticized Windsor’s decision to hold the line on taxes this year after Amherstburg Deputy Mayor Chris Gibb suggested the city reduced funding for the homelessness hub to maintain a zero per cent tax increase.
“Shame on anybody that doesn’t want to pay that to help people stay out of the cold, out of the heat,” MacDonald said, emphasizing the hub’s role as an essential resource.
