Windsor refugee shelter launches urgent call for help

A refugee shelter in Windsor is urgently calling for help as costs rise and donations fall. CTV Windsor’s Travis Fortnum has the details.

For the first time in its 23-year history, Windsor’s Matthew House Refugee Welcome Centre is publicly asking for help to keep its doors open.

Executive Director Mike Morency said a ‘perfect storm’ of higher costs and shrinking charitable giving has left the organization at risk of closing beds and cutting services as early as next month.

“Charitable giving across Canada is down about 17 per cent,” said Morency.

“For us, that drop combined with soaring expenses has pushed us to a point where we’re forced to ask for community support. We’ve never done an appeal like this before.”

The charity, which provides temporary housing and settlement support for unsponsored refugee claimants, receives no government funding.

About half of its annual budget comes from modest contributions residents make once they begin earning income; the other half — roughly $500,000 a year — must be raised through donations.

Morency said Matthew House has already laid off staff and reduced hours.

Reserves that would normally cushion tough years were spent opening a second home two years ago and helping more than 3,000 refugee claimants placed in local hotels through federal programs.

“If we don’t get community support within the next two weeks, we’ll have to start closing beds and cutting back on services,” Morency said.

“Worst-case scenario, we reach January snow and have to turn people away.”

Morency said the situation has been made worse by what he calls a growing wave of anti-immigrant sentiment across Canada — something that’s made it harder to raise money for refugee-related causes.

“When people are struggling, they look for someone to blame,” he said.

“The people we work with aren’t coming to steal jobs or housing — they want to rebuild their lives, and they do so quickly once they have a safe place to start.”

Among those currently staying at Matthew House are Diego Mendoza and Camila Pachon, who arrived in Canada in September with their nine-month-old son, Emiliano.

Back home, he worked as a civil engineer, and she was a social worker. The couple said the centre has given them stability and a place to start again.

Morency said roughly 95 per cent of the shelter’s beds remain full and new families continue to arrive each week.

Without additional donations, he warned, the strain could soon spread to the region’s already stretched shelter system.

Donations can be made online through CanadaHelps.org.