1.3 Key Requirements of Government Agreements, Policy and Plans

Housing Services Act, 2011

As the Service Manager designated by the Province of Ontario, the City of Windsor is responsible for planning, administering and delivering a system of coordinated housing and homelessness services that assists households to improve their housing stability and prevent homelessness. This includes emergency shelter services.

Housing and Homelessness Master Plan

As part of its responsibilities as Service Manager, the City of Windsor recently (2019) reviewed and updated its Housing and Homelessness Plan (Home Together: Windsor Essex Housing and Homelessness Master Plan). The review and update identified a number of challenges with the current shelter services. These include:

• A significant increase in demand for shelter, and heavy reliance on motel rooms

• 24/7 access to emergency/crisis services is not available to, or appropriate for, all population groups (e.g. youth, Indigenous Peoples) and individuals experiencing homelessness in Essex County must come to Windsor to access shelter

• Low barrier options are not widely available

• People who are seeking shelter were not being consistently screened and provided with diversion supports to help them stay in safe non-shelter alternatives

The Updated Plan identified a number of actions related to emergency shelters:

• One of the actions was to conduct an emergency shelter review. The review would determine opportunities to improve shelter services and recommendations would be implemented to ensure approaches are low barrier, focused on permanent housing outcomes, and meet peoples’ needs.

• The Plan also commits the community to implementing diversion practices from shelters. One of the Plan’s targets is that: By 2021, people seeking emergency shelter will be assessed to determine if existing and appropriate supports and housing options are available and if so, they will be diverted from entering the homeless-serving system (ie. emergency shelter)

• The Plan also includes an action to implement HIFIS 4.0 in the emergency shelters

• The Plan states that accountability standards, quality standards, and performance measures will be established for emergency shelters

• The Plan also includes an action to increase targeted services for Indigenous people within shelters.

The recommendations within this document align with the actions outlined in the Updated Plan.

Provincial Funding through Community Homelessness Prevention Initiative (CHPI)

The City of Windsor receives Community Homelessness Prevention Initiative (CHPI) funding to provide services that aim to prevent, reduce and address homelessness. A portion of the CHPI funds received by the City of Windsor are used for emergency shelter services. The City of Windsor funds the Salvation Army and the Welcome Centre through CHPI funding, while the Downtown Mission is benevolently funded.