According to the United Nations website, Domestic Violence is a behaviour pattern in any relationship that is used to gain or maintain power and control over an intimate partner. Internet sources such as the Women’s Aid website state that women experience higher rates of repeated victimization and are much more likely to get seriously hurt through domestic violence.
Christine Tran is an integrated program assistant in housing services for Halton Region and a former transitional housing support worker at Armagh, which is a housing authority based in Mississauga that offers secure and affordable housing to abused women. She wrote a policy brief on March 17, 2022, that said 44 per cent or 6.2 million women aged 15 and older reported some form of abuse from their intimate partners to authorities, such as local police and law enforcement throughout Canada in 2018.
Anselma House, a shelter at 700 Heritage Dr. in Kitchener, provides housing for domestic violence survivors, including women and children, for up to three months. However, due to the increasing costs associated with owning a home in the region, with the average price of a home sitting at $782, 716 according to Toronto-based finance encyclopedia WOWA, many residents at the shelter are unable to move out of the facility the average yearly income people in Waterloo and Kitchener make is $60,150 or $30.85 per hour.
How can survivors and families from shelters earn enough income to find their own homes?
According to the 2023 Waterloo Region Vital Signs Report on affordable housing by the Waterloo Region Community Foundation (WRCF), the price increase of housing in the Waterloo Region is among the highest in the world. Further, attempts to decrease housing prices did not increase affordability. The report focused on a few trends, including skyrocketing prices and rent, increased population growth and larger households trying to live in smaller homes.
In 2001, Cambridge’s Haven House and Anselma House merged to form the Women’s Crisis Services of Waterloo Region. After further developing their shelters to accommodate more survivors and survivors of domestic violence, the organization introduced a new transitional housing program in 2022.
The crisis service implemented a transitional housing service that helped over seven families, consisting of 24 individuals over the past year. Those families received personalized support and community partnerships that helped them transition out of the shelters.
It’s great that the Women’s Crisis Services of Waterloo Region (WCSWR) and the two shelters associated with the services provide programs such as transitional housing, outreach services, and community partnerships to survivors residing at the shelters.
However, I believe the services need to focus on survivors who are trying to leave the shelters. According to the Women’s Crisis Services of Waterloo Region website, there are 367 clients residing in the two emergency shelters associated with the crisis services. Among those 367 clients, 200 are women and 167 are children.
Through the actions the crisis association has taken, the choices shelters could make to assist survivors come to two options: Create a new program that will help survivors without families transition into new homes or create incentive programs that will help survivors earn enough money to find new homes for themselves.
Domestic violence is a common crime in Canada. We already have services and shelters in place for the survivors, but now we should also focus on how to help them transition into ordinary lives. Shelters are temporary solutions for people that are fleeing domestic violence or abusive households.
But with the increase in home prices and the unaffordability of the housing in the Waterloo Region, it is critical to think of solutions on how to help domestic violence survivors residing in shelters move out of the shelters.
