Windsor homeless shelters at or near capacity as charity says no sleeping bags left to hand out
CBC
During a week where temperatures dipped below freezing, Windsor's homeless shelters and support centres are preparing for Winter months. They say they're having difficulties meeting the needs of the city's growing homeless population.
The Downtown Mission and Welcome Centre Shelter for Women and Families are both at or near capacity, according to Rukshini Ponniah-Goulin.
"We shouldn't be at capacity already but unfortunately we are," said Pooniah-Goulin, executive director of the mission.
It has room for about 200 people each night and is preparing for more people to stay at the shelter for the colder months ahead.
"We all are trying to prepare for the winter with extra crash mats and things like that," she told the city's community services standing committee on Wednesday.
Those changes should allow for another 25 to 30 people to stay at the shelter.
City staff told the committee there were 549 people who were homeless in Windsor as of last December.
Street Help, a volunteer run organization that provides meals and clothing for hundreds of people each month, is putting out a call for sleeping bags after handing out its last one earlier this week.
"It was really heartbreaking for us throughout today as people were asking if they could have a sleeping bag and we had to turn them away," said Christine Wilson-Furlong who runs the homeless centre.
She said they had to turn away more than 60 people looking for a sleeping bag.
"It's just going to get colder and people are going to be more desperate and we fear for them."
Wilson-Furlong said that previous years they've asked the community to donate 300 sleeping bags to last through the first months of the winter.
This year she expects to need 400 more to meet demand because of the growing population.
"It's hard for us right now."
A Brampton lawyer allegedly connected to fugitive Ryan Wedding was granted bail Tuesday morning by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
Rankin Inlet hamlet councillors recently passed a motion that has had them avoid drinking alcohol for the 12 days leading up to Christmas, with the goal of setting a positive example for the community.
Jason Jacques says he learned a lot about the importance of choosing his words carefully in his first few months as the interim parliamentary budget officer (PBO).
Durham police say a man is dead after suffering multiple stab wounds in Oshawa Tuesday morning.
An internal review of technical outages that caused significant delays at airports and international land borders this fall has exposed critical flaws with the Canada Border Services Agency's IT services.
Two people are in life-threatening condition after being pulled from a house fire in Scarborough Tuesday morning, according to Toronto Fire Services.
Whenever the door opens at the British Grenadier Bookshop, proprietor Steve Douglas doesn’t know who is going to walk through.
A northeastern Ontario potato farmer says he’s shipping more bags of potatoes to southern Ontario to make up for waning demand.
Halifax’s registry of rental properties is now available to the public online, showing what HRM staff believe are the “bulk” of rentals in the city.
A New Brunswick tenant says he’s being pushed out of his rented bungalow as retribution for complaining about his landlord, but his landlord says she’s the victim of an unfair tenancy tribunal ruling that is preventing her from using the unit to house family.
Snow and freezing rain could affect morning commutes on Tuesday, according to a special weather statement issued by Environment Canada.
Daniel Jolivet, 68, had his first taste of freedom this weekend after spending the last 33 years behind bars.
Peguis First Nation is suing former chief Glenn Hudson over allegations he failed to act in the best interest of the band and financially benefitted from breaches of duty — including claims that he enriched himself, his family and supporters.