Where Windsor's 11 mayoral candidates stand on housing

Housing, candidate by candidate: we checked platforms, campaign sites and coverage for all 11 Windsor mayoral candidates. Ten have a housing or homelessness position, from co-ops to Housing First. One does not. Pledges, not City policy.

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Windsor votes for mayor on Monday, Oct. 26, and advance voting starts Friday, Oct. 9. Below is each mayoral candidate's housing or homelessness position, in alphabetical order by last name. Positions come from public sources, or from an email the candidate sent Windsor News on Oct. 8. Everything listed is a campaign pledge or position, not City policy.

The candidates

Benjamin Danyluk: Supports moving the homeless population out of downtown and repurposing abandoned schools as possible hubs, he told CBC in August.

Aaron Day: No housing plan found in public sources as of Oct. 8. He did not reply to Windsor News by the 2 p.m. deadline.

Drew Dilkens: Pledged on Oct. 7 to facilitate 5,000 more homes over four years if re-elected, including "Solidarity Towers 2.0," a co-operative housing development on the city-owned former St. Michael's school site on Detroit Street, a "Meadowbrook 2.0" affordable housing project, and keeping the 70 per cent development charge cut council approved in June.

Fred Francis: His platform calls for expanding Housing First initiatives through more affordable housing with wraparound and treatment supports, an office-to-residential conversion program, and pre-zoning downtown for as-of-right density with no parking minimums. At the Chamber debate he said he would bring in rent supplements and subsidized housing.

Dylon Graves: His campaign site says "Housing first is the solution." He proposes converting abandoned spaces into temporary housing that could later become regular rental units, and helping people at risk of losing their homes stay housed.

Tara Grayer: Her campaign platform lists three homelessness goals: identify individuals' needs to reintegrate, identify obstacles to housing and how to overcome them, and ensure funding reaches the intended recipients.

Nick Kolasky: In an email to Windsor News on Oct. 8, he said he would strongly promote the building of affordable housing.

Tristan Ty Morencie: In an email to Windsor News on Oct. 8, he said he would bring back a 1950s-style housing market in which middle-class families could afford homes.

Kat Pasquach: Her platform calls for incentives for co-operative housing, using City-owned land on long-term leases for affordable and co-op housing instead of selling it, support for community land trusts, moving forward with residential rental licensing, and asking the province to limit corporate ownership of single-family homes.

Patrick Sutherland: His platform would introduce the Housing First model used in Helsinki, Finland, with a share of rental units across the city set aside as affordable. He proposes a local lottery to help fund housing for homeless residents and says he would donate 20 per cent of his mayor's salary to that work.

Louis Vaupotic: In an email to Windsor News on Oct. 8, he proposed a trial City bridge loan for new multi-unit housing. The City would pay trusted contractors as work is done on buildings of four to eight units. The owner would have to live in one unit, and a share of the units would be rented below market rate. The owner would repay the City after getting a bank loan within a set period. If the owner could not get a bank loan, the other units would go to geared-to-income tenants and the City would repay itself from social services. He said strict tenant rules would be a condition of occupancy.

How this was checked

Windsor News checked each candidate's listing on the City's Who is Running page, every campaign website listed there, and news coverage including CBC, CTV, AM800, Windsor News Today and the Windsor Star. On the morning of Oct. 8, Windsor News emailed the four candidates with no housing plan found in those sources and asked for a position by 2 p.m. Nick Kolasky, Tristan Ty Morencie and Louis Vaupotic replied. Aaron Day did not. Candidates can send a housing plan to windsornewsdesk@gmail.com, and this story will be updated.