If Windsor-Essex wants to get a handle on homelessness, the executive director at the Downtown Mission says it has to address the addiction and mental health crisis first.
"There is drug addiction in our city that we have never seen before," says Ron Dunn.
While police, paramedics, and emergency room doctors are typically seen as the first responders to the region's opioid crisis, Dunn is also on the front-line of an epidemic of mental health and addiction issues.
File photo courtesy of © Can Stock Photo Inc. / Bialasiewicz
"An epidemic of homelessness? It's an epidemic of addiction and mental health which is leading to homelessness," he says. "I want to talk about those root causes. I want to talk about the systemic issues and not a band-aid solution."
Dunn, frustrated, says agencies that do not work with the Homeless Coalition of Windsor and Essex County are not addressing those root issues. He invites them to join the conversation. Otherwise, he says they are working in silos, pointing out that handing out sleeping bags will not make people whole again.
"Not that people don't need their basic needs met; they certainly do," he says. "But, if we're going to sound the alarm, let's sound it around the right issues, and to me, to the mission, the epidemic is around addiction."
There is work being done in the community to address the problem, but the source of Dunn's frustration is the quality of collaboration and the speed with which the work is being done.
"There's all these great things being done," says Dunn. "We just need to step it up, and maybe come together a little more cohesively, so we're not talking about sleeping bags.
"It's scary. Scary to see young people, old people, everybody in between from all ethnicities and all walks of life, they are discriminatory, and they will claim anybody who lets them."