Roughly 50 refugee claimants shuffled out of the GTA’s strained shelter system last week are now living in Windsor hotels.

The move by Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) on Friday opened up enough federally-funded hotel rooms to house some claimants already living on Windsor’s streets — claimants who were previously turned away by an at-capacity organization dedicated to sheltering and supporting claimants.

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Mike Morency, executive director of Matthew House Windsor, told the Star this is the first time the IRCC has transferred asylum seekers who arrived at a port of entry to another community. Prior to this, the federal government had only put refugee claimants who crossed at Quebec’s Roxham Road into the hotel program.

Otherwise, he said, having refugee claimants come to Windsor is nothing new.

“We have the capacity as a nation. We have the cavity as a community. We don’t need to be scared of these people taking our jobs,” Morency said.

“Windsor is an amazing, caring community with huge traditions but still huge potential.”

According to the Toronto Star, North York’s Dominion Church International transferred around 100 refugee claimants and asylum seekers to hotels in Windsor and Niagara on Friday. The church’s landlord, the Church of Pentecost Canada, said it needed to clear out the banquet hall for events booked in the space, the paper reported.

The church was one of several in the GTA to take in refugees and asylum seekers who were recently turned away from Toronto’s main shelter network, according to the Toronto Star.

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Before Friday’s transfer, a “significant” number of new claimants were already seeking shelter at Matthew House Windsor each week, Morency said — so many that the organization was turning people away.

Morency was in conversation with city administrators about how to house those claimants before temperatures dropped when he learned the federal government was sending more claimants from Toronto to Windsor hotel rooms, which the IRCC has leased.

“With the City of Windsor’s help, we were actually able to make use of some of those rooms for refugee claimants who are already in Windsor that we do not have shelter for, which is wonderful,” Morency said.

“If people are able to shelter before it gets cold, before the snow starts to fly, if they’re able to access the services and supports they need to tell their story, to settle in our community and become one of the thousands of success stories I could share with you, that’s what counts.”

In March, Windsor city council voted unanimously to inform Ottawa that Windsor did not have the capacity or resources to support more asylum claimants beyond the number of rooms already secured. At the time, that was 439 rooms at three hotels.

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Council made its decision at the recommendation of city staff, and after Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens said as many as 500 hotel rooms in Windsor could be leased for asylum seekers.

In just over two months before the council resolution, more than 1,100 refugees who entered Canada on Quebec’s Roxham Road — now closed — were bused to Windsor. The move was part of the federal government’s response to Quebec’s complaints that the sudden influx of asylum seekers was straining the province’s housing and social services.

Matthew House Windsor’s resources remain stretched thin, but not as a result of Roxham Road refugees sent to Windsor, Morency said.

“It’s stemming from the significant number of arrivals in Canada. Roxham Road crossings have significantly dropped, but refugee claimant arrivals overall have gone through the roof.”

More people will seek “safety and a fresh start” in Canada as long as global conditions “deteriorate,” he said.

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Matthew House is currently housing 122 adults and children. It’s also supporting around 1,500 people through the refugee claim process, some of whom are currently in area hotels.

The organization, which runs on donations, expanded from a three-bedroom house to a 23-unit building in Forest Glade in 2018. This summer, it added a west-end location — the former House of Sophrosyne building on Chappell Avenue — with 11 beds.

Morency said he’s made “numerous” calls to partners in Toronto, Montreal, and elsewhere asking them not to send anyone to Windsor unless they know shelter space — outside federally-funded hotel rooms — is available.

“Because we know that our capacity has been stretched, we are not going to encourage anybody coming from another community.

“We are 100 per cent donor-funded, along with all of the other refugee claimant specialty agencies in the province because the federal government doesn’t fund services for refugee claimants. What they’re doing at the hotels right now is an anomaly.”

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