DOWNTOWN MISSION BUYS LIBRARY FOR $3.6M
Deal to help with growing problem of homelessness in city
The Downtown Mission is paying $3.6 million for the Windsor Public Library’s central branch in a deal to address the “ballooning” problem of homelessness while spurring the city’s quest for a smaller, high-tech replacement in the core.
“We believe this building, repurposed, will be home,” Ron Dunn, the mission’s “over-the-moon” executive director, said Friday during a news conference at the sprawling 45-year-old library site in the 800 block of Ouellette Avenue. The purchase price includes an adjacent parking lot.
The deal closes in June of 2019 and involves the mission putting its Victoria Avenue converted church headquarters up for sale and moving its commercial kitchen, its multiple programs and administrative functions into the first floor of the WPL’s main branch. The second floor will be converted into badly needed one-bedroom apartments and transitional housing. The mission also has a four-storey former office building across the street from the library, purchased in 2016 for $950,000, which will continue to provide 103 emergency shelter beds.
The mission will pay for the properties — $3.2 million for the building and $400,000 for the parking lot — with a fundraising campaign, said Dunn. “This was a wise purchase, and we’re looking forward to being able to make homes for many of the people who currently are homeless.”
The library, meanwhile, will be moving to a temporary location after the closing date, while a permanent home is sought and developed. The offer from the mission is almost exactly what the properties are worth according to a recent appraisal, said Mayor Drew Dilkens, who chairs the library board. He said there will be a seamless transition with no period when the downtown will be without a library. As for the new library branch’s location, “we don’t actually have a firm answer,” the mayor said.
“We have several options in mind. We’re not going to put those on the table yet until we hone in on the most appropriate location, but let’s just say it’s going to stay downtown.”
It could be a new building, in existing space or a renovation of an older building. The Paul Martin Building, which the federal government wants to dispose of (there’s been talk of giving it to the city for $1), is a possibility, the mayor said. But city council is still committed to seeing the University of Windsor locate its law school there. “And we’re not giving up that dream before the (provincial) election in June.”
He urged people to take a look at Halifax’s impressive new $58-million central library as an example of what Windsor could see, albeit in a smaller version.
“I think (the Halifax library) inspires a lot of folks, including myself, around the library board table.”
Coun. Rino Bortolin, who represents the downtown and sits on the library board, said the sale is exciting because it really propels forward the new library project, something that’s been talked about for many years. “Something unique and something great that makes a statement in downtown Windsor, whether it’s a new building or retrofit an older building, would be fantastic to see,” he said.
He added that moving the mission’s headquarters out of the Victoria Avenue church is a “good win” for residential neighbours who’ve been distressed over the rising number of homeless people congregating in their alleys and around their homes. Acknowledging that the current neighbours will be happy to see the mission move to a non-residential area on Ouellette, Dunn said the Victoria facility was built 20 years ago to accommodate 100 people getting one meal a day. These days, the average is 726 people getting three meals a day.
“The need has ballooned. Just when we think we’ve hit a ceiling, it explodes again,” he said, blaming much of the increasing demand on the shortage of affordable housing. People are living in tents, camping in the Mission’s backyard and down by the river, he said, explaining the search for a new location took six or seven months.
“All of the dollars and politics and how long it took and all that aside, this is about the people who need a place,” he said.
The Downtown Mission started in 1972 down the street from the central library branch at Central United Church, with an average of 28 men served coffee and doughnuts in the basement. Today, it operates 24 hours a day, providing three meals and myriad services, including addiction and recovery programs, overnight shelter, a fitness centre, job retraining, a food bank and a hair salon. It rescues and redistributes $5.5 million worth of fresh produce every year, thanks to an outpouring of community support in the form of donations and volunteerism. But as a library, it’s oversized and out of date and doesn’t meet the needs of today, let alone the needs of tomorrow, according to Dilkens. Library CEO Kitty Pope said public libraries are still about books, “but they’re now so much more.”
In recent years, the inventory of books has been pared down from 190,000 to 175,000 at the central branch, as its role has evolved. “People need more space to congregate, to work together, to collaborate,” she said when asked about her vision for the new library. “They want new technologies, they want learning opportunities, they want innovative technologies that they can experience first and move out into the community with.”