Public Safety Is a Right

Windsor/Ward 4 deserves safe streets, enforced laws, and a system that actually helps people recover. Here is my plan.

The Problem Is Right in Front of Us

If you live in Windsor, you have seen it. Its moved out of the core and its spreading. Needles near bus stops. People using drugs in plain sight. Beggars in medians. Property crime creeping out from the core into residential streets. Families in Ward 4 are asking a fair question: what is the city actually doing about this?

My answer is blunt. Not enough. For years, Windsor has followed a purely compassionate approach to addiction and street homelessness. Its been a constant stream of handouts in every form, with money and services flowing to an industry of well-funded non-profits and agencies, and almost no enforcement of open lawbreaking. I believe that approach has failed. It has failed residents, it has failed businesses, and it has failed the very people it claims to help.

What the Numbers Actually Show

This is not a matter of opinion. The reported facts tell the story.

According to CBC Windsor, reporting in July 2025 on a City of Windsor report, the 2024 point-in-time count identified 672 homeless individuals in Windsor, up sharply from 251 counted in 2021. Of those counted, 62 per cent were male, and 279 respondents met the federal criteria for chronic homelessness. Nineteen per cent said they had arrived in Windsor within a year of the survey. The city's own acting commissioner of human and health services acknowledged the homeless population "seems to be growing." The city noted the counting method changed between years, and that is fair. But nobody can look at those numbers and say the current approach is working.

The overdose crisis is worse. The Windsor Star reported in March 2026 that in a single week, February 22 to 28, Windsor-Essex emergency departments recorded 19 overdoses, 16 involving fentanyl, prompting an urgent meeting of community partners. Regional EMS received 77 calls for suspected opioid overdoses in March, up from 33 in January, per the health unit's surveillance dashboard. The Office of the Chief Coroner for Ontario reported 224 suspected drug-related deaths for January alone.

And the supply is staggering. In September 2025, OPP and Windsor police seized 46 kilograms of fentanyl in Windsor, the largest fentanyl seizure in OPP history.

A Status Quo Built to Sustain Itself

Here is my position, and I will state it plainly. We have built a system that funds an industry to manage a crisis rather than solve it. Money flows year after year to agencies and programs, while the underlying lawbreaking goes unaddressed.

According to a report by The Windsor Star in June 2026, police encounter individuals openly smoking drugs in the downtown area daily. I have personally experienced this with my family, and officers do not typically detain those using substances on the sidewalks. A then-acting deputy police chief stated publicly that officers lack the authority to arrest individuals openly using drugs, noting that courts have "all but decriminalized" simple possession. Police Chief Jason Crowley remarked, "We will never arrest ourselves out of this situation."

I understand the Chief's perspective. Enforcement by itself isn't the complete solution. However, what we currently have is a lack of enforcement altogether, combined with a compassion model that doesn't expect change. This isn't true compassion. It's abandoning the addict to a predatory business model that profits from maintaining and advancing the status quo. Innocent citizens and our neighborhoods are the ones suffering as collateral damage from this failed policy.

Even when the city does act, it moves at a crawl. In April 2026, the city finally cleared long-standing encampments near Salter Avenue downtown and behind Crawford Avenue in the west end, after years of resident complaints about fires, drug use, and safety. As the Windsor Star and CBC Windsor reported, the downtown ward councillor said it took the city about three years to gain authority to act on private property, which he compared to someone pitching a tent on your porch. Three years. Homeless advocates opposed the clearings. Residents waited.

Meanwhile, demand continues to rise. The Downtown Mission reported approximately 90 people using its shelter each night in May 2026, which is higher than usual for that time of year, with about 35 more in overflow, according to CBC Windsor. In 2024, a proposed homelessness hub on Wellington Avenue was canceled due to cost concerns while the city continued searching for a location. Council has since voted to move forward with converting the former Windsor Arena into supportive housing. Staff's preliminary estimate is $55 million to $60 million for 102 dwellings, with annual operating costs not included, and the final cost could change once the building's condition is fully assessed. Meanwhile, the City's approved $20 million waterfront plan still has no full funding. I wrote more about this in "Better Leadership, Better Windsor: How Xsander Moisenko Will Transform Our Waterfront."

A Different Approach

I am not opposed to assisting those who seek help. However, I am against a system that supports a predatory business model masked as "compassion" and allows public spaces to become disorderly. Here is what I will advocate for on the council.

First, enforcement. Open drug use and illegal encampments cannot be shrugged at. Where the city has legal authority, it must act in months, not years.

Second, treatment that leads to recovery. Funding should follow outcomes. People housed, treated, and sober, not people warehoused in a permanent crisis.

Third, accountability for every dollar. If an agency receives public money, it should show measurable results or lose the funding.

Fourth, tools that work. In March 2026 the city launched Project Greenlight, expanding from a four-camera pilot to a 90-camera program for downtown businesses, budgeted up to $450,000 under the Strengthen the Core plan. The mayor said there is no "one silver bullet," and he is right, which is exactly why we need layered measures. In October 2025 the province announced three grants totalling $2,275,770 for Windsor community policing initiatives, including the problem-oriented policing unit, the crisis response team, and the nurse police team. Pairing officers with nurses and crisis workers is the right model: enforcement with a path to help.

Fifth, ward-level data. The Windsor Star reported in January 2026 that Windsor police 2025 year-to-date figures showed 10,445 reported property crimes, down 11.9 per cent, and 3,051 crimes against people, down 5.2 per cent, while other criminal code violations climbed 13.5 per cent, largely breaches of judicial orders, bail and probation violations. Ward 3 had the highest levels of both property crime and crimes against people, with Ward 9 next for property crime. Residents deserve this data broken down by ward, published regularly, so every councillor answers for their own streets.

Ward 4 Is Not Immune

Some will say this is a downtown problem. It is not. The city's own acting commissioner acknowledged the issue reaches across the community, and Ward 4 residents already see the spillover in property crime and disorder along our corridors. Waiting until South Walkerville looks like the core is not a plan.

My Commitment to You

Safe streets. Enforced laws. Real recovery. Accountable spending. That is what I will fight for at City Hall. If you want a councillor who will say plainly what is not working and act on it, I am asking for your vote this October.

Vote Xsander Moisenko for Ward 4.

Sources

City of Windsor 2024 point-in-time homeless count, reported by CBC Windsor (July 2025): https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/city-windsor-homeless-count-1.7595831

High number of opioid overdoses prompts urgent meeting in Windsor-Essex, Windsor Star (March 2026): https://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/high-number-of-opioid-overdoses-prompts-urgent-meeting-in-windsor-essex

Windsor police pivot response to open drug use, Windsor Star (June 2026): https://windsorstar.com/feature/inside-the-difficult-reality-of-policing-open-drug-use-in-downtown-windsor

OPP say their largest-ever fentanyl bust was in Windsor, CBC Windsor (November 2025): https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/windsor-largest-fentanyl-bust-ontario-provincial-police-9.6975794

Windsor crimes stats for 2025 show improvement, Windsor Star (January 2026): https://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/windsor-crimes-stats-show-improvements

Terrible situation: Windsor clears out downtown homeless encampment, Windsor Star (April 2026): https://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/terrible-situation-windsor-clears-out-downtown-homeless-encampment

City of Windsor removes homeless encampment in west end, CBC Windsor (April 2026): https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/windsor-west-end-homeless-encampment-9.7161849

Applications open for Windsors Project Greenlight surveillance cameras, Windsor Star (March 2026): https://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/applications-open-for-windsors-project-greenlight-surveillance-cameras

Windsor Police Service receives over $2 million to support community safety (October 2025): https://windsorpolice.ca/newsroom/news-update/2025-10-09-update-1

Meet the Mission: Downtown Mission launches community outreach sessions, CBC Windsor (May 2026): https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/windsor-downtown-mission-outreach-sessions-9.7198713

City of Windsor scraps site for new homelessness hub over cost, CBC Windsor (December 2024): https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/city-windsor-wellington-avenue-council-h4-mental-health-1.7417774