Homelessness fuelled by lure of affordable housing

Councillors discuss burgeoning crisis

Our homelessness crisis could be partly fuelled by Windsor’s reputation as an affordable place to live. That reputation is what may lure some people to come here and end up homeless, suggested Kelly Goz, the city’s coordinator of housing administration and development, as she presented a report to council Monday on the Windsor-Essex 10-year housing and homelessness plan.

The plan includes results from a survey this year that found 21 per cent of the people identified as homeless had been living here for less than a year. It’s a number that supports a link between rising homelessness numbers and people migrating here from other cities — attracted by our weather, access to social services and low cost of living. Goz said her anecdotal impression is that people come here because they think Windsor is an affordable place to live, based on what they see in news reports. Those reports cite high vacancy rates and Canada Mortgage and Housing statistics that point to one-bedroom apartments going for $700 a month.

“In our department, we know that’s not true,” said Goz, noting that typical private market rents are between $900 and $1,050 and that finding a decent, affordable place is anything but easy.

“So they get here and they find that the rents are still unaccessible.”

Councillors used Goz’s presentation to discuss the local homelessness crisis that’s most visible in the downtown.

“We are finding that more and more individuals, and our stats show, are finding themselves homeless,” said Jelena Payne, the city’s commissioner of community development and health services. “It is growing, it is growing exponentially in every community.” Earlier this year, a Point in Time Count found 197 people identified as homeless in the community, but the survey was done on a snowy day so it’s unlikely everyone was found. “We couldn’t go into every vacant building, or survey the people staying with family friends,” Goz said. “We do anticipate that number was much higher and we’re trying to get more real-time data.”

Two years ago, the same count identified 201 homeless people but that doesn’t mean the problem is improving, she told council. During the two years between the 2016 and 2018 counts, housing was found for 150 homeless people, and yet the number remained at 197 — meaning more people have joined the ranks of the homeless. She said there’s also been a 70 per cent increase in the number of homeless families, with no family shelter to take them. Families are typically put in hotel rooms at an annual cost of around $400,000.

The Top 3 reasons for homelessness, said Goz, are: an inability to pay rent or being evicted; addiction; and family conflict. “Homelessness is on the rise ... what we need to combat homelessness is housing,” she said. “Housing is the solution to homelessness across the country and internationally.”

The city is looking for a developer to build 150 affordable housing units on a city-owned parking lot at Caron and University avenues. But there are now 4,700 people on an affordable housing wait list that continues to grow.

Mayor Drew Dilkens said the city is in the fortunate position to be able to borrow $1 billion if it wanted to. If a housing unit costs $200,000 to build, that means the city could theoretically borrow $940 million and house all 4,700 people in need of affordable housing.

“But by tomorrow we would have 4,000 to 5,000 people on the wait list,” because solving the problem locally would just mean people would come from other places, he said.