A round-the-clock conversation about homelessness in Windsor

This week, there was a round-the-clock conversation about homelessness happening outside Windsor's downtown mission, helping spark important connections and raise a bit of money, too. The challenges are not decreasing, and if anything, they're increasing. We're celebrating the ninth annual Bench Talks. It's a 24-hour event that we're out in the community in front of our facility. Today, we've had multiple discussions regarding mental health, food security, affordability. Everything to do with even addictions and recovery, because we address all these things at the Downtown Mission. We have so many programs and services that support individuals that are struggling. There's a need, and the need is growing, and we're at capacity, so there's a real challenge there. And that's why we are doing the Bench Talk, so that the community knows and understands what we do. They provide food, they provide shelter, and they provide hope. And that hope comes from the programs that they have. By having people overcome addictions, we reduce the stress in other areas. That includes our police, our EMS, and other community partners, our hospitals, our wait times. We're willing to be what is needed for the community, as long as the funding exists. We raise over $3.5 million every year. How much more fundraising can we do and the honest answer is I don't think we can do a lot more. We're maxing out. People are struggling with affordability. How can we ask the community for more? The three levels of government have to come to the table. Come talk to us. We're open. We're always talking and we're available for discussions. So we really need our council to look at wraparound support services and we need to empower people to be able to take care of themselves and the downtown mission does that.