This House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women meeting was part of its study on women's shelters and transitional housing. The committee heard from five witnesses: Catherine Champagne, Executive Director of the Alberta Council of Women's Shelters; Erin Lee, Executive Director of Lanark County Interval House and Community Support; Sunder Singh, Executive Director of the Elspeth Heyworth Centre for Women; Julia Fiddes, Executive Director of The Denise House; and Kim Decker, Chief Executive Officer of YWCA Cambridge.
Catherine Champagne stated that the housing crisis has fundamentally changed shelters, which now function as long-term housing providers because survivors cannot find affordable housing, leading to a 22% increase in average shelter stays in Alberta since 2019 and over 31,000 individuals turned away in 2023-24. She recommended increasing investments in affordable and supportive housing, strengthening funding for shelters, supporting transportation solutions for rural communities, and recognizing shelters as essential social infrastructure, noting that transportation barriers often prevent survivors from reaching safety.
Erin Lee emphasized that housing insecurity, poverty, and gender-based violence are interconnected, with up to 30% of women returning to abusive situations due to systemic challenges, and that lethality is highest at the time of separation. She recommended establishing a commission on intimate partner and gender-based violence to inform government with expert and survivor voices, and called for modified funding equations to recognize the realities of rural, remote, and fly-in communities.
Sunder Singh argued that shelters should become centres of opportunity by integrating skilled trades training, giving women pathways to careers with stable incomes rather than minimum wage jobs. He cited a partnership in Bradford, Ontario, where a municipally owned property could shelter and train up to 20 women for approximately $13,000 each, and urged the government to view shelters as an economic investment in workforce development and public safety.
Julia Fiddes stated that a lack of affordable housing is one of the greatest barriers to safety, with women staying in emergency shelters for eight to twelve months because appropriate housing is unavailable, and that Durham region declared intimate partner violence an epidemic in 2023. She recommended significantly increasing investment in deeply affordable and supportive housing for survivors, funding transitional and second-stage housing, and ensuring funding models account for regional realities and integrated supports like child care and trauma counselling.
Kim Decker argued that the artificial distinction between homeless shelters and domestic violence shelters is problematic, as women in violence shelters are homeless, and that this siloed funding leads to fewer beds for women compared to men. She recommended formally expanding the definition of homelessness in the Reaching Home strategy to include hidden homelessness, mandating a gender-based carve-out in the national housing strategy, and requiring universal design standards in federal infrastructure funding to ensure accessibility for seniors and women with disabilities.
The committee briefly discussed scheduling, with members agreeing to continue the study on shelters on June 18 and resume the study on menopause in the fall.
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