Thousands turned away amid women’s shelter shortage in Quebec

Quebec organizations helping women in need amid intimate partner violence are sounding the alarm, as a shortage of shelter spaces for women trying to escape their situations is getting worse. Some organizations say they have no other choice but to turn victims away.  

Last year, Regroupement des maisons pour femmes victimes de violence conjugale au Québec turned away 3,300 women due to a lack of space.

Between April 2023 and March 2024, SOS violence conjugale, received 16,327 calls from victims asking to be referred to a shelter, the organization could only accommodate nearly half those women.

Shield of Athena, a non-profit organization for victims of family violence is facing the same issue.

“Last year, the shelter had 7,400 and some calls for assistance, but there were 118 people that went into the shelter,” said Melpa Kamateros, executive director of Shield of Athena.

Kamateros says providing safe spaces for women also means providing safe spaces for their children.

“In our shelter last year, we had 56 children and 61 per cent of those 56 children were between the ages of newborn until four years old,” said Kamateros.

“I know provincially that overall in the past year…we’ve had an overall 103 per cent occupancy rate,” said Hélène, a mother-child counsellor at West Island Women’s Shelter.

Adding, “If we don’t have place to give them the help, this could be down the road, what happens? There’ll be many more femicides that will be happening. Kids will become almost orphans in this kind of situations. So it’s a very, very dire future if we don’t get more help.”

According to Women’s National Housing & Homeless Network, nearly 700 women were turned away from domestic violence shelters across Canada each day. For years, several women’s advocacy groups have called on Ottawa and Quebec to put an end to the inconsistent funding for shelters.

In a statement to CityNews from the office of Quebec’s Housing Minister France-Élaine Duranceau reads in part, “First of all, we’d like to reiterate that shelters play an essential role in protecting vulnerable women. These are very important projects for our government. We have a good working relationship with the various organizations and with the Alliance, and we have agreements in principle with most of them to resolve impasses. We’re going to make sure that all the projects see the light of day as quickly as possible. We’re continuing to work with organizations to ensure that these additional spaces are created as quickly as possible.”

Quebec’s Social Services Minister will be meeting with Alliance MH2, another women’s advocacy group, on Wednesday to discuss the topic at hand.

“We’re not looking for just social housing, we’re looking for the complete package that is there to support the women as they got into the next step,” said Hélène.