initial step to being connected to agency support staff, housing supports and other relevant stakeholders. The program is being delivered by the City in partnership with Canadian Mental Health Association, Windsor Family Homes and Community Partnerships, Family Services Windsor-Essex, Housing Information Services, CommUnity Partnership, and New Beginnings. To date, 221 unique persons experiencing homelessness have made 1,248 unique visits to the program. 3

As we continue to move through the effects of a pandemic it is important to monitor the use of shelters as factors including the end of the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), the reinstatement evictions and the Landlord and Tenant Board could have the potential to contribute to an increase emergency shelter needs in our community. Consequently, it would be prudent to consider how emergency shelter services are evolving in Windsor-Essex and other communities, and to collect and analyze data on shelter usage during COVID.

Emergency Shelter Review Recommendations:

As the provincially designated Service Manager for Windsor and Essex County, the City is responsible for the planning and management of the housing and homelessness service system, and is responsible for ensuring emergency shelter services delivered meet both the expected outcomes of the provincial CHPI funding, as well as any future vision for emergency shelter services that is approved by City Council and articulated in the 10 Year Housing and Homelessness Master Plan. The consultant made several recommendations (presented in italics below):

The City should continue to administer and ensure contract compliance through Service Agreements between the City and third-party organizations that deliver shelter services, which should include quality assurance in the following areas:

Shelter providers (that receive funding from the City) work in partnership with the City to provide input into emergency shelter standards and should be required to work in compliance with the shelter standards. To do so, they should create their own policies and procedures that align with City standards. Non-funded shelters should be encouraged to adopt the same standards and practices.

The following recommendations places the number of shelter beds at 121 that are required across the shelter system. This number assumes that if diversion supports were fully implemented across the system, 30% of clients seeking homelessness services in locations where diversion has not fully been implemented (i.e. Salvation

3 City of Windsor, Windsor Waterworld data as of July 7, 2020