Women’s shelters in Ottawa – including those in Centretown – are so full they are constantly turning away women who are looking for a safe place to sleep.
And women with disabilities are having an even tougher time finding a shelter that can accommodate their needs.
“When we’re full, we’re turning away two to four callers a day,” says Karen MacInnis, the executive director of Interval House, the city’s oldest women’s shelter. It’s a “big concern” she says, because Interval House is full 90 per cent of the time.
Because none of the city’s shelters have waiting lists, MacInnis says women have to keep checking for an opening at the 20-bed facility. She says staff will call other shelters to find a vacancy, but the search often proves fruitless.
“When I call other shelters, they’re full as well,” MacInnis says. “That’s where the concern lies. We’re all having the same problem.”
But, she adds if an abused woman needs shelter, she will always be able to find a temporary safe place somewhere.
“No woman has to stay in an abusive situation,” she says.
Kia Rainbow, the manager of Chrysalis House, a west-end women’s shelter, says it also turns away about three women a day. Last July, August and September, for example, she says staff told 391 women that the 25-bed shelter had no space for them.
“The shelters in Ottawa operate at full capacity,” Rainbow says. “We have way too many women calling than space to provide the service.”
The Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services – which funds the shelters for abused women – keeps track of the number of those who don’t receive a bed, Rainbow says, meaning the province is aware shelters can’t keep pace with the demand.
But MacInnis says her “biggest frustration” is that the 33-year-old shelter has only one “semi-accessible” room with a wheelchair ramp set aside for the disabled.
“They can’t access any of the other floors, which means they can’t participate in all the programming,” MacInnis says. “And to me that’s wrong.”
Rainbow says because Chrysalis House was built in 2004, it is completely accessible. For example, it’s equipped with automated doors and low kitchen counters for women to cook.
“So a woman in a wheelchair can live here and have complete independence,” she says.
However, MacInnis says all of Ottawa’s shelters recognize that the city’s lack of accessible facilities is a problem.
“Shelters are traditionally quite underfunded and are really struggling to meet the needs of women, particularly women with any special needs,” says Sarah Todd, a professor at Carleton University’s School of Social Work. Todd says she wants to see the government allocate more resources to address the demand.
MacInnis says Interval House is hoping to negotiate with the province to move to a new and fully-accessible location.
The four-storey building that houses the shelter now is about 100 years old and in constant need of repairs, she says. But, if they did move, she says the province would only fund a portion of the costs. The shelter would have to fundraise the rest.
“We hope that [the new location] would be bigger, so we wouldn’t have to turn away so many women,” MacInnis says.
Rainbow says demand for shelter beds has been increasing in recent years, but she says she doesn’t believe this is because abuse is growing. Rather, women today are more aware of the options and services available to them, she says.
MacInnis says she wants to see more shelters built, but shelters don’t solve the underlying problem of abuse.
“We’re still turning away people because of being at full capacity, which tells me the problem is there,” she says.
Women’s shelters will continue to fill up, regardless of how many new ones are built, says Sgt. Monica Christian of the Ottawa Police Service’s Partner Assault Unit.
“Unless we actually address the people who are doing the abuse and try to stop that, then the cycle will continue.”