Thank you so much.
Good evening, everyone. It is so great to be here. Thank you for the invitation to speak to the committee today on behalf of the Canadian Women's Foundation, which is Canada's public foundation for gender equality and justice.
The work of the Canadian Women's Foundation and of the organizations we support takes place on traditional first nations, Métis and Inuit territories. We're grateful for the opportunity to meet and work on this land.
The foundation advances gender justice and equality by growing support for grassroots feminist action, partnering with community organizations and building diverse leadership and knowledge for sustainable change. For more than three decades, we have addressed gender-based violence through funding, public education, research and advocacy. Since 1991 our generous donors and supporters have contributed over $290 million to fund over 3,500 life-transforming programs throughout Canada, in every province and territory. Many of those are focused on gender-based violence, or GBV.
GBV shelters and transitional housing provide women, children and gender-diverse people leaving violence with access to safe and supportive living spaces. Funded five decades ago with a one-time grant, the shelter movement has led responses to GBV, expanding services and providing a pathway to living safely in community. Today, in addition to refuge from violence, shelters provide a range of essential services that include school liaison; accompaniment to medical, legal and administrative appointments; financial literacy; and housing workers. They are currently operating at a crisis level.
In terms of capacity pressures, what we're seeing is that it's severe across the shelter continuum. It is directly tied to the national housing and affordability crisis. Shelters are routinely operating above what is officially funded as the demand for services continues to increase. Because of the housing and affordability crisis, survivors are extending their stays in shelters, which means that fewer beds and units are available for new survivors. A report from Women's Shelters Canada shows that shelters provide services for increasingly diverse populations with complex needs and strive to fill system gaps, but capacity constraints and chronic underfunding make this work difficult.
A DAWN Canada report shows that accessibility should be the standard, not an afterthought. Disabled and deaf women, girls and gender-diverse people in Canada experience GBV at disproportionate rates. We need to fund and enforce physical, sensory, cognitive and communication accessibility, ensuring that shelters and transitional housing allow children and provide disability-related support.
The median year of GBV shelter construction in Canada is 1981, which means that half the shelter stock is at least 45 years old. Almost half, or 45%, will require major repairs. A further 31% are in need of minor repairs. Of those needing repairs, 53% lack the required funding. These older structures are much less likely to include accessibility features for people with disabilities. Again, infrastructure and uneven accessibility have emerged as among the most urgent and persistent challenges, particularly in remote, northern and indigenous shelters.
Accessibility barriers remain entrenched, with fewer shelters being fully accessible. Less than half of shelters, or 48%, are generally accessible for wheelchairs and mobility devices. These infrastructure and accessibility issues can force shelters to turn away survivors with accessibility needs or place them in spaces that do not fully meet their needs, undermining safety, dignity and inclusion. In some remote regions, including Nunavut, accessibility challenges are nearly universal amongst surveyed shelters.
Older women are facing a shelter gap. The lack of affordable housing has become a significant issue in the prevention of the abuse of older women, especially in rural areas.
With only 15 shelters for older women—