Evidence of meeting #42 for Status of Women in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was survivors.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dominique Vien
Thank you, Mrs. Larouche.
Ms. Cody, the floor is yours for five minutes.
Conservative
Connie Cody Conservative Cambridge, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I'm going to focus my questions now on Ms. Nizigama.
Thank you for coming today.
The national shelter study's 2024 update shows that the shelter occupancy rate is increasing due to an increase in the number of users overall, as well as the length of stay. Do you see the affordability crisis and the rising cost of living as factors resulting in this increase?
National Chief Executive Officer, YWCA Canada
Absolutely. We always see that cross between affordability, specifically when it has to do with housing, and gender-based violence. The cross of that is what's increasing the numbers we're seeing in the shelters and in the demand for affordable housing.
Conservative
National Chief Executive Officer, YWCA Canada
We've seen that increase. Also, we see it because of the lack of a continuum of care. People are not going into and moving through the system as they should when they come at the emergency point. We also see it because there's just a lack of coordination in the provincial-federal-territorial plans, so that, again, we're not getting adequate support, whether that's operational or it's funding to support people. The wait-lists are getting longer, and people are waiting longer.
Conservative
Connie Cody Conservative Cambridge, ON
You're talking about wait-lists, and it looks as though it's a significant number in different areas. Have you heard of women being turned away because the shelters are full? What are the consequences to these women for their safety when there's nowhere else for them to go?
National Chief Executive Officer, YWCA Canada
The stats are that 1,000 women and children are being turned away every month right now because of a lack of space.
I didn't catch the last part of your question, but we have people being turned away. Actually, for the monthly stats collectively in Canada, 20,000 women and children are being turned away every month at the shelters.
Conservative
Connie Cody Conservative Cambridge, ON
I'd like to focus on the last part of my question, because I really want to know what the consequences are for their safety when they have nowhere else to go.
National Chief Executive Officer, YWCA Canada
They have to go back to unsafe situations or they are on the street or in.... As I think somebody mentioned, sometimes we were able to help them and put them in a third space, like a motel, but again, that's when we start seeing some risk for human trafficking and other challenges that can happen because of that desperation.
There's the risk of retraumatizing and then intergenerational risk, as in passing on the cycle to the next generation, especially when there are children involved. We're also seeing critical risks, such as fatalities. We've seen a rise in homicides. When women are leaving unsafe situations, their abusers are likely to have the most extreme forms of violence.
Conservative
Connie Cody Conservative Cambridge, ON
Would keeping the cost of living affordable better support women so that they can move away from shelters, be more self-sufficient and move away from abusive relationships?
National Chief Executive Officer, YWCA Canada
Yes, and we see that in our services.
Because we are a multiservice YWCA, we have the largest network of employment programs for women. We move people from that scarcity emergency into skilling, upskilling and re-skilling, and then help them attain a job and be able to rebuild their lives. We give them access to child care and give the younger people in their care access to camps and other services so that they have that wraparound service. This includes counselling and other things they may need for their mental health, and other areas as well, such as legal help. That multiservice approach is an approach that we would like to see supported and funded adequately.
Conservative
Connie Cody Conservative Cambridge, ON
We see that seniors are more likely to struggle with mobility issues. With this affordability crisis, more seniors seem to be seeking the shelter system. Would you say that the shelter system is equipped to accommodate the unique mobility needs of seniors? Has the system kept pace with the growing number of seniors who now have nowhere else to go?
National Chief Executive Officer, YWCA Canada
No, we have gaps in that care. This is something that we are studying at YWCA. Many of our member associations are looking to build, as part of their new plan builds, facilities in which they can have that accessibility and the supports for needs that come with aging, especially for women, knowing that we don't have a lot of.... There are gaps there as well for women's health that we're not going to get into here, which we are also looking to support.
No, we haven't kept up with the fact that we have an aging population, but we are very aware of that.
Conservative
Connie Cody Conservative Cambridge, ON
We should concentrate on affordability in housing at this point then.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dominique Vien
That's it. Ms. Cody's turn is over.
Ms. Gladu, you have the floor for five minutes.
Liberal
Marilyn Gladu Liberal Sarnia—Lambton—Bkejwanong, ON
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses for being here today.
I want to start with you, Ms. Nizigama, because you were talking about the amount of violence that is happening and the danger if women return to where they came from. That's why our government is trying to advance Bill C-16, so we can get at such things as coercive control and prevent the femicides that are happening. I know that the national action plan on gender-based violence is up for renewal. How important is it to renew that?
National Chief Executive Officer, YWCA Canada
It's critical to renew that. We think that we should start some of those negotiations. We've seen the delays that happened the last time when we were having the provincial and territorial negotiations. We are calling for an urgent beginning of that process so that, when it comes to the end of the current agreements, we are ready to go and it's adequately funded. We also are calling for a commissioner to oversee that implementation, because we think that's going to come with more accountability and reporting on the numbers and the impact.
Liberal
Marilyn Gladu Liberal Sarnia—Lambton—Bkejwanong, ON
It's really needed. I think that, along with the $1 billion dollars that's been put aside for shelters and transitional housing, more is needed. This is super important.
Ms. Matheson, you mentioned child care. I'm interested to know about child care in the shelter situation. What's the availability like? Is there another gap there?
Executive Director, Harmony House Shelter
There is. We have a small child care centre, but because of capacity, staffing and the space size, we can only help women who are taking courses or are going to court or medical appointments. We can't do permanent child care for women who are working. This is a big difficulty. The child care has to be trauma-informed child care, because the children have witnessed what their mother has gone through. That is a specialized area.
Liberal
Marilyn Gladu Liberal Sarnia—Lambton—Bkejwanong, ON
Ms. Nizigama, do you provide child care services as well at the YWCAs across the country?
National Chief Executive Officer, YWCA Canada
We are the second-largest non-profit provider of child care across the country. Yes, we usually do the co-location of building new housing and child care. They are often together. That's also something that we're proposing in the 2,000 units that we have planned over the next three years and that we're trying to work with Build Canada Homes on.
Liberal
Marilyn Gladu Liberal Sarnia—Lambton—Bkejwanong, ON
We've heard a lot of witnesses talk about the lack of transitional housing. I'm trying to get more information about what transitional housing really looks like. Is that townhouses? Is it apartments? Is it a combination of things? I would ask each of the witnesses if they could weigh in on that, starting with Ms. Nizigama.
National Chief Executive Officer, YWCA Canada
In our services, it really depends on the profile of the people we're helping. Sometimes it could be co-location and multiple women living together. That becomes a kind of kinship model, in which they also care for each other and help meet each other's needs. We also may need some individualized support.
It also depends on the level of trauma and whether we also have some substance use challenges that we may need to tackle. It really does depend, and we try to have that customized care for everybody.