In Durham region, we have four gender-based violence shelters. We are the largest. We are a very close-knit group. Our shelter served almost 200 women last year. We turned away close to double that.
That's our shelter, so if you add the other three shelters who are seeing many of the same people.... Durham region, for those who don't know, is quite large. Many of the people who are reaching out to the Ajax shelter are probably going to Toronto, not us, and they are seeing at least the same number of turnaways that we are.
I heard someone say it in the earlier panel: that has a very huge impact on our staff. Knowing that a woman's life is potentially at risk—and when I say “at risk”, I mean death—and having to say no to her is probably one of the harder parts of this work, and working in this field is hard enough.
Yes, we're seeing a huge number, and that's because we can't move women out, quite frankly.