For women who are fleeing abusive relationships, there are enough “beds”, in the jargon of the services, for the first month. There are different agreements, but we will never turn a woman away and we will never tell her that her month is up and she needs to go out. We will make sure that she has adequate housing afterward.
But the issue of this after the immediate crisis is very, very complicated: women do not have housing. The B.C. Housing priority list--or at least the short list--is huge. Women have to wait months and sometimes years until they get subsidized housing.
So again, it's the issue of poverty undermining women in regard to leaving. The immediate crisis support is there. The transition houses are there and are offering very useful services to women: immediate life-saving services and immediate support and resources. But when the woman leaves the transition house, she has very little to go on.