Again, my name is Debbie Zweep. I'm here at Faye Peterson House in northern Ontario, where spring has not really reached us yet. I'm happy to be with you to talk about the role shelters play in violence against women here in Canada, specifically in Ontario.
Today, I wanted to talk to you about second-stage housing. We have just built, on our same property here, eight units. It took us 10 years to build this property, and we finally got funding from the feds, from the City of Thunder Bay, and from, of course, fundraising within this community. I wanted to acknowledge that the federal government's initiative for funding housing navigators was certainly the key to our success, both at a federal level and also at a local level.
Once we started working with Women's Shelters Canada and their navigators and the city, we were able to put all the funding together. I also wanted to let you know that we had envisioned a bricks and mortar version, but we then switched to a modular build, which reduced our capital costs probably by at least 50%, if not more, and that we were successful in starting on time, completing in time, and—I'm happy to tell you—coming in under budget.
What is unique about our second stage is that our vision is, or our dream is, to have two women share a unit. These would be single women, typically over the age of 55. There's not a lot of research on that, but we have begun. There are two single women we had housed here within our first-stage shelter who have now been living together for the last month. We also have a family with two teenagers. We are using lots of information from our sister shelters, but also the document that was produced by Women's Shelters Canada with best practices or the practical guide for second-stage housing in developing policies, but really it is the women who are guiding us as we move through this process.
I think one of the things that are of the most importance at this moment as we implement second-stage housing is that there is no operational funding. I'm sure you have heard that before. While they are supported by workers here within the first-stage shelter, transitional housing and support, with maybe a family court support worker and certainly a little child care, there is no sustainable funding. A community of 120,000 in the north here has committed to raising $30,000 a year to contribute to that break-even that we have to provide to what was CMHC. I'm not sure whom we'll be providing that to now.
With the second stage, I think it's important to recognize that women have moved out of crisis but haven't moved out of danger, and that's why we've built second-stage shelter: We can keep them safer right on this property with the same systems, but they do need specific programming. Their children need specific programming in order for us to evolve with them, so that they can be fully active participants within our community and live safe as well. Our vision is that they will probably be here two to three years and, with our work with them, we will move them forward into the community, into regular housing. That's our goal, anyway.
The second thing—I know I have only five minutes—is to talk to you a bit about custody and access, and how difficult this period of time is for women. Women are often spending $10,000 at least if they are trying to negotiate custody. It is a long process. If a woman chooses to go to trial, they are at $100,000, and if they are on legal aid they are not usually going to trial and their outcomes are often not as successful.
One of the difficulties with custody and access is certainly the process, working with defence lawyers on both sides or family law lawyers who are dragging this out in regard to the participants. It is often taking two to three years, and within that time women are living in poverty. They aren't getting support payments. They can no longer manage to have their house or their vehicle. They have to use public transportation to move their children to appointments, to activities. There continue to be long battles on section 7 and extracurricular activity.