City exploring options to repurpose Windsor Arena as part of expanded homelessness services

Fate of the old Windsor Arena

The city is exploring if it’s possible to repurpose Windsor Arena to use the space to work along with the city’s Homelessness and Housing Help Hub in the downtown core.

Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens announced that the city was looking into the idea during his State of the City address Thursday at the Caboto Club.

The arena at the corner of McDougall Avenue and Wyandotte Street East was built in 1927 but has been unused for several years after being permanently closed in 2012 and shares a parking lot with the city’s Homelessness and Housing Help Hub, or H4.

Dilkens says they think there are models in place in other communities that would be interesting to replicate here and provide a pathway to get people off the street, a pathway to treatment, and a pathway to housing while using some of the assets already available at H4.

He says they have to work through what it would look like while being considerate of the people who live in the Glengarry neighbourhood.

“We don’t want to further destroy any neighbourhoods; we actually want to enhance them and build them up,” he says. “This plan would be all about helping to do that in a coordinated, sensible way. Bringing other partners in that would actually make a difference. When people say they see the effects of mental health and addiction playing out on the city’s streets, we get it. We just, as a city, have very limited tools at our disposal.”

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the city converted the former Water World site into the H4 and, since then, has expanded the services available to include washrooms, beds, and access to wraparound social and support services. In July 2025, city council approved spending millions to fill in the pool to create more space and invest in improvements to the HVAC system, work that is due to begin this year.

The initial search for a permanent H4 site resulted in the city eyeing a property at 700 Wellington Avenue, but that was pulled off the table in December 2024 due to the cost of land acquisition.

In May 2025, the council voted to look beyond a two-kilometre radius of the downtown core and instead explore options right across the city.

Dilkens says it’s been very difficult to find a permanent place for an expanded H4, but in this case, the current H4 is working.

“We’re looking at this as the next possible step. We think that this could actually have some legs if done right. We’re going to put all the costs together; we’re going to seek funding from the provincial and federal governments,” he says. “I’d say we’re not pitching the towel in on an H4 site somewhere else, but with all the work that’s been done over the past couple years, tell me where.”

Dilkens says the great thing is that the city already owns the arena land and the building.

“We’ve done some initial work, but what we have to do now is do more work,” he says. “Part of it is what it would cost to retrofit Windsor Arena to be able to deal with the changes we’re talking about. How do we fence portions of it off to help control access better to the Glengarry neighbourhood behind so we can remove some of the disruptions that those folks are living with?”

Dilkens says if the arena can be repurposed, they envision having a number of the partners already involved at H4 and bringing more staff on-site to keep those experiencing homelessness, mental health, and addiction issues in a place where they can stay engaged.