Status of Women committee  Yes. It's such a common occurrence. You hear about the first time when they escaped. They maybe had some support initially, but then often will end up going back because they can't find the housing. We hear when we have to turn people away, “Where are they going to go?” They're

Status of Women committee  That's where we've seen women blooming, when you can bring staff alongside and just really encourage them and help them. There are different levels of housing, and when we move the women into.... It's in the north end of Nanaimo and it's close to the biggest mall. It's just a re

Status of Women committee  We're very excited to at least have this option coming up. It's a lot of work as you can imagine trying to get 80 units. They are not even on site yet. They are being moved in. It's workforce housing that's being brought in from Fort St. John in the north. They have shipped these

Status of Women committee  It's a real challenge right now. As I mentioned, we've had huge success with the continuum of putting them into supports. Initially, they sometimes need that 24-hour support, then move into fewer supports, and then into rent subsidies. When we provide a rent subsidy for them, we

Status of Women committee  Yes, the mention of the tax break for landlords might help. I know, as the value of the houses are going up, to find a house now for $500,000, that's a fairly basic house now in Nanaimo. If landlords are having to pay a mortgage on the place and their taxes keep going up, they pu

Status of Women committee  Yes. As I mentioned, we really struggle because we're not specifically for women fleeing abuse. There is a shelter that does a great job in town, but when it's full, we often get those women as well. I think it has six beds. We have 14 shelter beds and six supported units in our

Status of Women committee  Thank you very much. The Island Crisis Care Society is a registered non-profit society that helps people in crisis to stabilize and then find the supports that they need. We also offer the resources and services that people need in order to be well. We work in co-operation with

Status of Women committee  Parksville is a very small community, so there is a great collaboration piece there that we actually don't see as much in Nanaimo, because it's a bigger centre. Many organizations stepped up. We did a big fundraiser, with people walking on the coldest night of the year in a cross

Status of Women committee  Good morning. It's a privilege to be here today. I'm here with Ronell Bosman, who is the programme director at a homeless shelter for women in Nanaimo. Island Crisis Care Society is a non-profit society that helps people in crisis. We hope to help them stabilize and move forward