Downtown Mission plans move with Windsor's H4 to better serve clients — and neighbours
The Downtown Mission says it plans to move alongside Windsor's Homelessness and Housing Help Hub — a relocation that could significantly reshape how the city delivers support to its most vulnerable.
Executive Director Rukshini Ponniah-Goulin told CTV News the Mission hopes to co-relocate with the H4 when the city finds a permanent site for the homelessness hub.
'We have every intention and hope of going there with them,' she said.
'Or relocating close to it, if not right on the property.'
While the Mission has operated its shelter and services out of a building on Ouellette Avenue since 2017, Ponniah-Goulin said that site was never meant to be permanent.
In a new location, she said she'd like to see features that support both clients and the surrounding neighbourhood.
'An enclosed space in the back for our clients to have some privacy,' she said.
'But also, so our neighbours — whether they be businesses or residential homeowners — don't necessarily have to be faced with the clients every day.'
She said staff are already working closely with the city, as the search for a permanent home for the H4 resumes.
Council voted this week to remove a previously imposed two-kilometre boundary from the downtown core, allowing potential H4 locations to be considered citywide.
Mayor Drew Dilkens acknowledged the shift won't be easy.
'Nobody wants this next door to them,' he said.
He added the city's goal is to find a location that works for the people who use the hub — and for those who live nearby.
'A lot of the behaviours that play out are unwanted behaviours by many of the residents,' Dilkens said.
'And so, we're going to try and find a location that makes sense within our city.'
Water World was only intended as a temporary home for the H4 when it opened in 2020. A proposed move to Wellington Avenue was shelved late last year due to cost.
The mayor said identifying a new location could still take years.
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