The Welcome Centre Shelter for Women and Families has begun rolling out 12 additional beds after Windsor City Council approved $60,000 in temporary funding earlier this year. The shelter says the expansion follows months of work behind the scenes, including facility upgrades, room preparations and staff hiring. The expansion increases capacity for single women from 32 beds to 44, while family capacity remains unchanged at 21 units. Executive Director Lady Laforet says getting the beds ready involved more than simply finding space. “We did have some capital items we needed to do to make sure that the rooms were ready, get some repairs done. And then a lot of it was the hiring. Making sure we had the case manager ready, the additional housing worker, housekeeping. All the stars finally aligned and we started adding beds in last week,” Laforet said. The shelter is opening the beds in phases, with four added last week, four this week and the final four coming next Monday. Laforet says the gradual rollout gives staff time to manage new intakes and provide support, adding demand remains high as the new beds are filling almost immediately. “Even though we’ve had a lovely warm spot the past few days, we know the cold weather’s coming. We were really excited to get them in before that hit and they were full immediately. So last week’s four beds were full on the first day. Yesterday we added the additional four. They were full yesterday. As of today, we had two beds open,” she said. Laforet says community advocacy not only helped secure the funding, but also sparked broader conversations. “The community started a larger conversation and they started a conversation about what matters to the community in terms of our homelessness supports. Do gendered services matter? What does it mean to have women’s supports and services? What do low income women deserve? And it really opened up that broader conversation, and the support has been overwhelming,” Laforet said. The funding approved by council is temporary, with the shelter seeking permanent support through the city’s 2027 budget process. Laforet says the shelter submitted its funding request to the city by the Oct. 15 deadline and is expecting further discussions with administration before the matter returns to council as part of next year’s budget deliberations.
