County councillors question social housing agreement with Windsor

Essex County Civic Centre

The validity of the agreement between the County of Essex and the City of Windsor when it comes to social housing has come under fire.

At last week’s county council meeting, several councillors voiced their frustration as to how the funding that is filtered down from the province is being distributed.

According to county director of finance/treasurer Melissa Ryan, the city is the service manager for social housing and therefore determines how much of the provincial homeless prevention program dollars are passed on to the county.

Ryan said that the province gives the City of Windsor about $16 million each year of which $2.4 goes to the county to help support its current 226 beds.

The long discussion at the meeting was initially sparked by a report from the county’s director of health and community services Natasha Sheeler, who confirmed that the city has discretion on how they allocate the funding.

“If we can’t reach an agreement with the city on expanding the services, or figuring out where those funds would go, we would see a decline in our level of service,” said county CAO Sandra Zwiers.

In her report, Sheeler said that the service providers who operate the homes in which the 226 beds around the county are located, have indicated they are not getting enough funding and that in the past five years, four homes have closed, displacing 80.

“The best decision could be to tell the city to get lost or to the province they aren’t doing enough,” said Amherstburg Mayor Michael Prue.

Essex Mayor Sherry Bondy said that for several months now the county has tried to sit down with the city and discuss the issue.

“How do we get them to talk to us about social housing? Our goal is not to embarrass them. The goal is to say we have a problem and it’s not being fixed,” said Bondy.

LaSalle Deputy Mayor Michael Akpata said that the relationship with the city, when it comes to social housing, seems strained and questioned Zwiers what is being done to strengthen that relationship.

“Oil and water don’t mix. We can try and do the right thing and if our partner doesn’t want to speak to us, we have to continue on to take care of the folks we have the privilege of representing,” said Akpata.

The county recently raised the per diem rate for each resident in the county homes from $60 to $65 per day and that was in consultation and co-operation from the city.

“I think what we struggle with in this relationship is the fact the funds from the province are not enough to address a really big issue,” said Zwiers.

LaSalle Mayor Crystal Meloche wanted to know what other regions were doing regarding social housing when the province was not providing enough funding.

Sheeler said that throughout the province, there is a mixed approach.

In her report to council, Sheeler said the county could look at the possibility of purchasing homes and leasing them out to service providers.

“We need to decide if we want to pursue the option of purchasing property or work within the existing system,” said Amherstburg Deputy Mayor Chris Gibb.

County council was against that option and instead adopted a resolution brought forth by Lakeshore Mayor Tracey Bailey that stated the county was against development of a county-administered social services delivery and to retain the city as administrator. Her motion also requested the county ask the city to review the current service agreement between the two.

County councillors question social housing agreement with Windsor

By Fred Groves