Windsor has capacity and 'willingness to welcome,' advocate says as additional refugee claimants arrive

About 50 refugee claimants are arriving in Windsor, Ont., as the federal government tries to ease strain on the number of refugees coming into the Greater Toronto Area.

Immigration Refugees and Citizenship (IRCC) confirmed to CBC News the new claimants are coming to the city on Friday. Another 50 are travelling to Niagara Falls.

Those coming to Windsor had been in shelter at Toronto's Dominion Church, which has been housing hundreds of asylum seekers this summer but recently told CBC News they had had to turn people away.

IRCC said it received a request for support from the church, which was at capacity and had more people arriving.

"Of note, all claimants must consent to be transferred to a new jurisdiction," IRCC said in a statement.

IRCC leasing hotel rooms in Windsor

The claimants will be housed in hotel rooms leased by the IRCC, said Stephen Lynn, the city's manager of social policy and planning.

Stephen Lynn is the manager of social policy and planning for the City of Windsor. (Mike Evans/CBC)

Bringing claimants to Windsor comes as the number of refugees housed in the IRCC-leased hotels has declined recently.

At its busiest point, Windsor had about 1,400 people staying in local hotels leased by the IRCC. As of mid-September, Lynn said that number was around 600.

"...[T]here have been a significant number of asylum claimants that were once housed in the hotels here in Windsor that have left and gone elsewhere outside of the hotels," Lynn said.

"From my understanding the IRCC has capacity within the hotels that they're funding and they're going to be moving asylum claimants from the [Greater Toronto Area] to Windsor because there's current capacity within their hotels that they fund."

Lynn said that while deciding whether to transfer claimants to Windsor is a decision the IRCC makes, he said it's possible the region will receive more in the future, as long as Windsor has space.

"It's something that we're preparing for in terms of all of the partner organizations that are already on site and working with the current asylum claimants," he said.

Lynn said the refugees Windsor has had so far have been well-received by the community, with support services successfully able to help and, for example, recent first days of school for newly-settled children going off without a hitch.

"What I'm proud to say is that IRCC has indicated to us time and time again that Windsor is a wonderful model for a community response," Lynn said.

Matthew House resources stretched

Mike Morency, executive director of Matthew House, confirmed the organization was aware of more claimants arriving in Windsor Friday, and said Matthew House would be one of the agencies providing settlement support services.

Matthew House currently has 122 people in its own shelters locally, and are helping support another 1,000 with their services.

Mike Morency is the executive director of Matthew House. (Amy Dodge/CBC)

Morency said he's not anticipating the IRCC will bring Windsor back to the number of claimants it had at its peak — but the region has a "willingness to welcome, as well as a capacity."

As we head into Thanksgiving weekend, Morency said Matthew House's resources are stretched thin. The organization is out of grocery gift cards and bus tickets, both of which it uses to help people settling in Windsor and Essex County.

But, he said, Windsor has welcomed asylum seekers with open arms.

"I think Windsor-Essex is a community of immigrants," Morency said

"It's normal for a community of immigrants to want to welcome immigrants and unfortunately sometimes some people lose sight of that," he said.