Many of them had to stay in their abusive situations until a space could be available. Some were placed in temporary places, like motels within the city of Ottawa. Some of them may have been lucky enough to find space in another shelter locally or outside of the city.
The options are very limited and none of them are ideal. The length of time that people are forced to stay in emergency shelters or temporary accommodations creates instability that is really difficult to recover from, especially for kids. If you can imagine, when children move from one area of the city to another to reside in a shelter, for example, they may have to change schools, and then if they are then transferred somewhere else after that, they might have to change schools again.
The lack of housing is creating instability for families on such a large scale that it makes it very difficult for families to move on from the trauma they've experienced.