Neena Randhawa, manager of transition housing at the Progressive Intercultural Community Services Society, says the federal emergency support was beneficial because it didn’t strictly dictate what the money should be spent on, unlike other funding shelters typically receive.Kayla Isomura/The Globe and Mail
An infusion of emergency pandemic funding from the federal government allowed women’s shelters and transitional houses across Canada to offer women fleeing domestic violence a better chance at reintegrating into society. But that money runs out this fall and services such as counselling, child care and education support will end, shelter workers say.
“Shelters are just going to go back to what things were like before the emergency benefit, which was not a good situation,” said Kaitlin Geiger-Bardswich, director of communications, development and grants at Women’s Shelters Canada. “Shelters have been underfunded since they’ve been created, essentially.”
Since April, 2020, more than $300-million in emergency funds was allocated to combat gender-based violence. About half of this went to women’s shelters.
Ms. Geiger-Bardswich’s group, which represents shelter associations across the country, distributed the money to organizations that operate 75 per cent of 600 shelters in Canada.
The majority of initial funding was used to address shelter overcrowding by relocating some women to hotels. In the first eight months of the pandemic, shelters saw an increase in the number of calls they received for help and the severity of violence being reported.
Other initial funds covered costs associated with the pandemic, such as personal protective equipment, physical-distancing measures and cleaning supplies, Ms. Geiger-Bardswich said. Shelters also used the money for rent and utilities.
Beyond day-to-day operations, the shelters were able to provide enhanced services, such as child care and faster WiFi for remote learning.
As of May, 2022, funding was also permitted to be used for renovations. Ms. Geiger-Bardswich said many shelters are in old buildings, which are often falling apart and inaccessible.
“The funds were very flexible, which is the good part,” she said. “There are services that were needed but were never able to be funded. Now those services will end if there’s no funding left to continue them.”
Cryderman: Alberta women’s shelters struggling, as demand soars and funding remains stagnant
Alberta women’s shelters ‘under-resourced,’ turn away thousands, report says
In the latest federal budget, no new money was set aside for women’s shelters. However, Ottawa proposed $160-million over three years for the new Women’s Program to fund one-time projects that address systemic barriers to women’s equality.
This funding does not support day-to-day shelter activities.
Generally, shelters receive their main funding from provincial or territorial governments, other than shelters on reserves, which are funded through Ottawa.
Valérie Haché, senior communications adviser at the federal department, Women and Gender Equality Canada, said in an e-mail that Ottawa’s pandemic funding was an emergency response to the COVID-19 crisis. That was on top of continuing work under the Women’s Program as well as the Gender-Based Violence Strategy, which works with all levels of government to fund initiatives that address gender-based violence.
Harmony House is a transitional house in Surrey, B.C., for immigrant women and children fleeing domestic violence. The facility, which is run by the Progressive Intercultural Community Services Society, received $723,475 in emergency funding from Ottawa since April, 2020.
Neena Randhawa, manager of transition housing at PICS, said some of that money was used to provide new resources, such as English lessons and laptops for remote learning. Harmony House was also able to hire an in-house counsellor to help women and children with trauma-informed recovery.
She said these programs helped women succeed.
“One mom is back in school. She has all these resources we were able to provide her. She’ll be able to live a comfortable life rather than go back into the same cycle of abuse and retraumatizing the children.”
However, Ms. Randhawa said the new services will likely end once the pandemic funding runs out.
She said the federal emergency support was beneficial because it didn’t strictly dictate what the money should be spent on, unlike other funding shelters typically receive.
“Every community is different,” she said, adding that the needs of Harmony House may be different from other women’s shelters and transitional houses.
Ms. Randhawa said the rising cost of living highlights the need for flexible funding. “One of our moms has four children and she was just telling me she needs to buy shoes and warm jackets. It’s just so expensive.”
A study by Women’s Shelters Canada showed that 64 per cent of women’s shelters do not receive annual cost-of-living increases from their government funder, and one in five reports not having had a funding increase in 10 years or more.