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Fight for Home
Windsor Star reporter Madeline Mazak and photographer Dan Janisse visited a Windsor homeless encampment over several days to produce a two-part series called Fight for Home. Today’s Part 1 looks at the homeless perspective while Part 2 looks at the neighbouring homeowners’ perspective.
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On a downtown Windsor dead end, a gap in the trees reveals a patch of tents and makeshift shelters concealed by overgrown weeds and piles of garbage.
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The wooded area has become one of the city’s many homeless encampments.
With a lengthy list of people waiting for affordable housing in Windsor, finding permanent shelter for the camp’s residents can take years.
“We get a lot of tears out here,” Ashley Shepley, an outreach worker at the Downtown Windsor Community Collaborative, said during a recent visit to the encampment.
“We can’t promise them anything, because we don’t even know. We’re in a housing crisis. We can’t sit there and say you’re going to get housed, or you’re going to get into treatment.
“So, we have to love them where they’re at.”
As she approached a group of tents, she called out: “Anyone home?”
Joined by fellow outreach worker Tammy Chapman, the pair carried backpacks filled with water bottles, snacks, and flyers for an upcoming bingo night. They spent almost an hour speaking to a small group of individuals who call this bleak space home.
Located on a 15,000-square-metre piece of privately owned property beside rail tracks between Wyandotte Street West and University Avenue West, the site has become a source of tension between frustrated homeowners and property owners who claim that safety and sanitation issues spill over into their yards.
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In the last year, the City of Windsor has received 13 formal complaints regarding the condition of the property, a city spokesperson said in an emailed statement to the Star.
On the other hand, with not many viable alternative places for the encampment’s residents, outreach workers hope to protect them from eviction.
“That would be like somebody coming and taking your home right from underneath your feet,” said Shepley.
“You can come and take out 100 encampments, but those people are still people, and they’re going to establish themselves somewhere else — survival skills.”
In November 2020, dozens of homeless individuals were evicted from another downtown encampment dubbed Tent City, located in a ravine-like area known as The Cut.
Among those driven out by city workers and the Windsor Police Service was Jennifer, 44, whose name was changed for this article to protect her identity from family.
Today, she lives in the encampment that sprung up on private property just a few blocks away.
“We all have a story,” said Jennifer. “Every one of us has a reason why our lives are the way they are.
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“I’ve tried lots of times to do better. At times, I’ve succeeded.”
This isn’t Jennifer’s first time living rough — in the last eight years, she has returned to the streets four times.
It’s been a challenging ordeal. She’s faced struggles with mental illness, bouts of addiction, and was forced out of her apartment when a new landlord announced plans to take over the unit.
And now, with summer’s end and temperatures starting to drop, two months have passed as she waits for a bed at a local shelter.
“We’re not bad people just because we’re on social assistance,” she said through tears.
Just last month, Windsor joined other municipalities from across the province in calling on the Ontario government to help address the proliferation of homeless encampments.
Windsor currently has around 10 known sites, according to the city.
During a Windsor visit on Sept. 16, Ontario’s Premier Doug Ford was asked about his plan to address the encampments.
Ford told reporters that the Ontario government is “going to continue pouring money and supporting the homeless.”
He added that the best solution is “getting a good-paying job.
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“Give them a trade, tell them to go out there and get back on their feet and be able to pay rent and put a deposit down on a mortgage. That’s what I believe.”
Meanwhile, Bryan Rock, manager of housing at Windsor-Essex Family Services, told the Star that the local affordable housing supply has reached a “crisis” level.
A record 9,000 names currently fill the city’s Central Housing Registry, a waitlist overseen by the Windsor-Essex Community Housing Corporation.
The city’s crowded emergency shelters highlight the problem.
The 32-bed shelter at the Salvation Army operated at 100 per cent capacity in August, and 85 per cent in July.
The Downtown Mission, with 96 beds, saw nightly occupancy rates wavering between 90 and 100 per cent this summer.
And “even if somebody does go through the steps of getting themselves on the Central Housing Registry,” Rock said, “they can still be looking at many years before an offer comes to fruition.”
Lately, the private housing market presents even more challenges.
“Within the last couple years, private market rent skyrocketed,” said Rock.
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“A few years ago, you could find a one bedroom apartment for $700 to $800 a month. Now, good luck finding anything under $1,300 a month.
“That’s one of our biggest obstacles right now — supply and demand of the market. Another issue we have is very low vacancy rates in our city when it comes to rentals, so the competition is fierce.”
For the time being, the encampment’s trespassing residents can take shelter on the privately owned property, without knowing when they’ll get the boot.
The city has limited leeway to intervene, despite complaints from neighbouring homeowners and business owners.
According to a city spokesperson, intervention comes at the discretion of the out-of-town property owner.
Forced back onto the streets after being evicted from the Glengarry Avenue neighbourhood, the location of several public housing complexes, Dale McRae, 43, was seen cleaning a tangled bundle of copper wire in the encampment.
If the copper shines, he can sell it for a higher price, which helps him get by.
“Housing shouldn’t be so hard to obtain,” McRae told the Star.
“I was too proud to go to the Salvation Army,” he said, adding that he prefers to stay away from crowded emergency shelters.
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Deeper in the wooded area resides 52-year-old Claude Garneau, who relocated from Quebec City a few months ago.
He keeps a low table and a small cot elevated with blocks in his shelter made by a few faded tarps that are strung together.
“It looks strange, but my bed is dry and my clothes are good,” said Garneau, who feels OK about his current lifestyle for now.
“I have simplified my life for a moment. It’s not forever.”
Despite only scraping together about $300 to $400 a month washing windows, he plans to hunt for an apartment before winter.
In the meantime, living rough comes with its own set of “dangerous” encounters. On multiple occasions, Garneau has safeguarded his camp from people trying to steal his bike.
“I had to defend my life,” he said.
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