Windsor mayor stands by Welcome Centre letter as shelter calls comments ‘unsettling’

Council discusses community involvement in planning decisions, a new event series that hopes to provide tourism boost, and shelter funding. Sanjay Maru reports.

Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens is standing by a letter he issued in response to the Welcome Centre Shelter for Women & Families, while the shelter says his comments were “unsettling” and have raised concerns about how advocacy from non-profits is received.

Speaking to reporters Monday, Dilkens said his written statement “speaks for itself” and does not require further clarification.

“I don’t think there’s any ambiguity in what I put on the paper,” Dilkens said.

The mayor’s statement was issued after the Welcome Centre put out a public letter on May 19, saying a request for about $192,000 in annual funding had been denied.

According to shelter officials, the money would have kept eight temporary beds open for single women and added four more flexible spaces.

In a written statement put out May 20, Dilkens opened by saying, “2026 is an election year. Funny things happen in election years. Yesterday was one of those instances.”

Asked Monday what he meant by that, Dilkens said the statement “speaks for itself” and the city does not have $200,000 waiting to be allocated.

“We get envelopes of funding from the federal government. We get envelopes of funding from the provincial government. And so we all have to work within our means,” said Dilkens, adding their budget was “held flat” with no cuts.

Dilkens said the city approached the shelter late last year to add beds for women as part of cold-weather planning, but said the situation is different now.

“The request was designed explicitly to add more capacity for cold weather. We’re now in May, where we’ve had several 90-degree (Fahrenheit) days, and so the pressure is not there,” he said.

He also criticized the shelter’s decision to make its funding concerns public.

“It was really odd behavior to do a drive-by smear on that type of thing with your funder,” Dilkens said. “That’s not the way. You don’t go out and do public announcements that we asked for money and the city said no and try and make your largest funder look bad.”

He continued, “I get it. The Welcome Centre wants more money so they can continue to offer this enhanced level of service that we needed just for the wintertime. But the way they go about presenting their case and trying to go make a social media case and make the city look bad, I humbly think that’s the wrong way to go about it.”

In a letter released Monday afternoon, the Welcome Centre said it found the mayor’s statement “unsettling.”

“We cannot speak to the mayor’s intent, only to the impact his words had on our organization and community,” said Executive Director Lady Laforet through a second letter shared Monday.

The shelter said its original message was meant to highlight what it described as an ongoing systemic deficit caused by provincial funding not keeping pace with inflation, with no funding increase in five years.

The Welcome Centre added said it tried to balance public advocacy with political diplomacy but felt the mayor’s response reframed its advocacy as inappropriate.

“Many in the community were quick to point out that the underlying message was, ‘Don’t bite the hand that feeds you,’” the letter reads.

According to the shelter, some people in the community, particularly women, shared concerns that the mayor’s statement discouraged the organization from speaking openly about systemic underfunding and its impacts.

The letter says many interpreted the mayor’s words as framing advocacy for service equality as “ingratitude,” rather than a call for better support for vulnerable people.

“For many women, speaking up to authority figures, especially challenging the status quo of a man in power, can result in the withdrawal of support or resources, leaving them socially or economically vulnerable,” the letter reads.

The Welcome Centre also pushed back on how government funding was characterized, saying pandemic-era programs and municipal contributions were not acts of personal charity.

“When government responsibility is framed as generosity, it can obscure the reality that underfunded non-profits and charities often carry the burden of providing essential services that governments themselves are unable or unwilling to fully fund,” the letter reads.

“We are social changemakers. Our survival should not depend on silence, and our loyalty remains where it has always been: ensuring marginalized women and children in Windsor have access to safe spaces and meaningful support,” the letter reads.

Last week, the Welcome Centre said the denial of additional funding would result in eight temporary beds that were added in January being phased out altogether.

The eight beds were added earlier this year at the request of city administration to help with cold-weather planning.

According to Laforet, the shelter turned away 328 women in the final four months of 2025 because no beds were available.

After the temporary beds were added, Laforet said the number of women the shelter could not accommodate dropped by 57 per cent.

Those beds are now being phased out through attrition, meaning once a bed opens up, it will not be filled again.

Laforet said the municipal request came after the shelter was denied a separate request to the province for a cost-of-living increase.

The shelter ended its second letter by issuing a call for community donations, asking residents to consider becoming monthly donors, even at $5 or $10 a month.

“We will continue to speak openly about these issues through our social media channels and community engagement,” the letter reads. “We continue to stand in solidarity with the Windsor community; all of it.”