By: Sylene Argent, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Essex Free Press

Council for the County of Essex took steps to bridge the gap for the unexpected $140,000 shortfall for the Leamington Homelessness Hub at its July 15 meeting, which included hiring a temporary outreach worker to collect county-specific homelessness data. In addition, the projected annual operating pressure of around $70,000 for the Homelessness Hub will be included in the draft 2027 Budget for Council’s consideration at that time.

At the June 17 regular meeting, County Council unanimously directed staff to formally engage the City of Windsor to explore a shared funding solution to support current operations at the Essex County Homelessness Hub and overnight program.

At that meeting, it was learned there would be a $140,000 funding shortfall that could require the operations of the Family Services Windsor Essex administered Homelessness Hub in Leamington to suspend overnight service over the summer and decrease its day program to five-days a week until October 31, if no other alternative was found.

The shortfall was created when the federal Reaching Home funding of $70,000 that had previously been allocated to the County from the City of Windsor as the Regional Service Manager was distributed to other priorities. There was also a $70,000 shortfall for security needed at the Leamington Homelessness Hub.

County of Essex Council, at that previous meeting, also committed up to $70,000 in one-time funding for the 2026 operating year from the Rate Stabilization Reserve, conditional upon the City of Windsor providing a matching contribution. County staff was also directed to work with the City and partners to create a coordinated advocacy strategy to the provincial and federal governments, seeking sustainable, multi-year funding for homelessness prevention, emergency shelter, housing stability, outreach, and supportive housing services throughout the region.

Since that meeting, CAO Sandra Zwiers said the County’s Finance Department did a deeper dive into the Community Services Budget – which encompasses homelessness and residential services programs. It was discovered that the current clientele the County serves in the Residential Services Homes Program are receiving increased amounts in ODSP and Old Age Security payments. When that happens, the reliance on the County’s subsidy reduces, allowing more funds to stay within the program.

As a result, County administration recommended the surplus funds be reallocated over to the Homelessness Hub to support the projected deficit. Zwiers said that will get the program through the rest of the year, without having to reduce services or dip into any Rate Stabilization Reserves.

The Community Services Department is forecasting an overall year-end surplus of approximately $263,799 in County municipal funding. The updated projections indicate that the homelessness programs, including the Essex County Homelessness Hub (ECH2) Day Program and Overnight Program, are currently projected to experience a funding deficit of approximately $51,139. While a funding deficit remains, it is significantly lower than originally projected as a result of the updated financial analysis completed through the projection review process.

Staff recommended three steps to mitigate the issue, of which County Council supported two with majority votes.

County Council did approve funding, up to $25,000, to Family Services Windsor Essex to support a temporary Outreach Worker. This position would support the collection and validation of homelessness data across Essex County, improve the accuracy of the ByName List, provide additional support to the existing Outreach Worker, and strengthen the County’s ability to demonstrate community need through reliable local data.

Zwiers said the County wants to ensure rural homelessness is properly accounted for, ensuring the County fully captures the Homelessness picture in rural communities and has a stronger advocacy position when they discuss the matter with the City of Windsor.

Lakeshore Mayor Tracey Bailey and Deputy Mayor Kirk Walstedt were opposed.

County Council also directed Administration to include the projected annual operating pressure of approximately $70,000 for the Homelessness Hub in the draft 2027 Budget for Council’s consideration, to support the ongoing sustainability of the program. Staff believe this will be an ongoing cost moving forward.

This passed nine to five, with Bailey, Walstedt, Essex Deputy Mayor Rob Shepley, Kingsville Deputy Mayor Kim DeYong, and Tecumseh Deputy Mayor/Deputy Warden, Joe Bachetti, opposed.

Bailey said she opposed this as it was annualized. She wanted to support it for the year.

County Council did not, however, support the establishment of a Community Services Contingency Reserve from surplus levy funding to support flexibility in responding to unforeseen service demand and funding pressures resulting from changes in community demographics, program utilization, and other emerging operational needs, as part of prudent long-term financial planning.

Based on the 2026 County Budget, the County currently contributes approximately $1.2M annually in municipal funding toward Community Services programs.

The goal would be to exhaust funding from upper levels of government first. If there was a surplus in levy dollars only, that would be put into the reserve.

It was explained that future municipal levy surpluses generated within the Community Services portfolio would be transferred to the reserve and used to address future funding pressures, offset revenue fluctuations, reduce budget volatility, and support the long-term sustainability of Community Services programs.

Bailey saw this as asking taxpayers for the money. She said if some of it is not spent, it is called a reserve and funds programming that does not have funding instead of giving it back to the taxpayers.

This failed six to eight, with Amherstburg Deputy Mayor Chris Gibb, Tecumseh Mayor Gary McNamara, Leamington Deputy Mayor Larry Verbeke, Kingsville Mayor Dennis Rogers, Warden/Leamington Mayor Hilda MacDonald, and Essex Mayor Sherry Bondy in support.

Social Services is a provincial matter, Mayor Rogers said. Though they can’t fund it all, he doesn’t think they can say “no” to it all, either.

With there being around 70,000 households in the County, getting that additional $70,000 would be $1 per household to ensure there was a homelessness hub open 24/365; “to me that is money well spent.”

While Lakeshore Mayor Bailey supports maintaining services for those who experience homelessness, her concern had to do with governance, accountability, and the long-term role of Essex County.

She said the County started a program that was not funded, and the County is continuing to look for ways to support the non-funded program. Whether from reserves, levy dollars, or year-end surpluses, the funds come from taxpayers.

Before creating an ongoing expectation for County-funded homelessness initiatives, Bailey said the County needs to deliberate on policy discussions about its role. She was prepared to support the one-time allocation to maintain service-levels, but opposed funding the temporary outreach worker and establishing the reserve.

She believed the reserve will become a County-funded program, which would be a policy decision that has not been decided upon, yet.

LaSalle Deputy Mayor Mike Akpata never wants to see anyone put out on the streets because the County can’t find $70,000 to bridge that funding gap this year. “But, I also think we are starting to make it too easy for the provincial government to download these things to us,” he added, noting the County needs to reach out to the province to ensure it understands the position it is putting the County in by not funding social services appropriately.

Zwiers said there is a predominant responsibility at the provincial-level, but there is also a legislated downloaded responsibility as a partnership with local municipalities to help fund. That is why the County spends around $19M a year towards broader social services, such as children’s services, Ontario Works, Passport to Potential.

The $1.2M is in addition to that for the Community Services budget, for Residential Services and homelessness programs.

County homelessness, she added, falls outside existing agreements as a new – yet growing – issue.

In speaking to the position on collecting data, Kingsville Deputy Mayor Kim DeYong wanted to know if data was being collected already, Zwiers said County staffers have been specifically trained to log that data. She said it is believed there is a homelessness population at the Hope Centre not being counted, for instance, because they are not necessarily coming to the Hub. This worker would go to those other locations to capture that data that do not have access to the database to record that information. Not all services in the County have an MOU with the City and are trained to be able to input data into that database.

If that $20M Essex County spends on social services is piled up in the middle of the Council Chambers, and residents were asked what they wanted County Council to do, Essex Deputy Mayor Rob Shepley believes it would lead to a different conversation.

In terms of collecting data, he pointed out the previous meeting, it was reported there was a $140,000 shortfall for the Homelessness Hub. The County went to the City and asked for half of those funds, only to find out at this meeting, that is not the case, once County staff took that deeper dive into the finances.

“How do we expect them to trust the data you are going to collect, when our data is a bit flawed?” Shepley asked.

Zwiers said since the last meeting, staff looked into the residential services program, and noticed savings that can be used to fund the homelessness program, as set out through policy. She said that the deeper dive should have been done previously.

Essex Mayor Sherry Bondy seconded the motion, noting that having more data is important. She believes the County will have to spend some money this year on the Homelessness Hub, but would understand hesitation on creating a reserve. That should be a decision for the next Term of County Council.

Bondy added the County is putting $100M into the acute care hospital, and was not sure if other regions have had to ante up for healthcare like Essex County has. She gave credit to staff for finding the funding to help the most vulnerable individuals.

“When we protect our most vulnerable people, healthcare spending goes down, costs for service for OPP go down, vandalism in our neighbourhoods go down,” she said, adding she recently learned individuals were sleeping in a Town of Essex park.

If the County can’t prove its data, it can’t ask for more, LaSalle Mayor, Crystal Meloche, said. The data is also needed to prove to the province the need, so they can ask for more funds. She was in favour of supporting the $70,000 this year and the data worker for this year, but believes the next Term of County Council should decide if that $70,000 should be ongoing.

Lakeshore Deputy Mayor Kirk Walstedt told County Councillors if they approved all three recommendations, they could likely hear the City and the Province breathe a sigh of relief.

“We do this time and time again,” Walstedt said, noting there is always a provincial shortfall, as so many of his colleagues suggested around the table that evening.

He sees the issue as partially the City’s fault as it allocates funding as it does, and the province for the shortfall for the needs locally.