We are organizations dedicated to the safety, autonomy and well-being of women and their children. We welcome, accompany, guide and support thousands of women each year. Following the 1er July, this is an urgent appeal, a cry from the heart that we are launching to you. To you, government bodies, political decision-makers and civil society as a whole: we ask for your support and your firm commitment to change the intolerable situation in which we find ourselves.
We are exhausted. Exhausted from our helplessness in the face of the growing number of requests for emergency accommodation and the difficult choices we have to make. Exhausted from living in untenable situations exacerbated by a precarious social climate that hits women and children hard.
Indeed, the housing crisis, one of the most pressing issues of our time, is manifesting itself in cruel ways for the women we serve. Every day, we face an alarming increase in the number of women and children seeking housing, often unsuccessfully, due to the shortage of affordable and healthy housing. This reality sometimes forces us to make heartbreaking decisions about who we can accommodate and who we must leave without immediate support. Our mission is to support these vulnerable women, and we are faced with a no-choice. Ensuring the safety of some at the expense of others, choosing emergencies among emergencies: these are the choices we are faced with. left.
Choices we have made as a society are now leading our organizations and teams to this absurd dilemma. A dilemma paid for at a high price by women and children already in vulnerable situations.
The housing crisis is putting enormous additional pressure on women’s shelters. And to solve this crisis, it is time for the government to realise that this crisis is gendered.
Indeed, households headed by women disproportionately live in substandard conditions, where abuse is often perpetrated by landlords, particularly households headed by single mothers. There is a severe lack of social housing that meets the needs of abused women, with many having to choose between paying rent, feeding themselves or their children. With few housing options and overflowing shelters, many rely on dangerous survival strategies to meet their basic needs, trapping them in situations of hidden homelessness, exploitation and violence.
Lack of affordable housing A lack of affordable, safe and secure housing is a major reason why women remain in or are forced to return to abusive situations. Women disproportionately face economic insecurity, making it difficult to access housing in overheated rental markets. As well, because it affects them more, this crisis exacerbates the violence and marginalization experienced by racialized women, Indigenous women and LGBTQ2+ people.
It is clear that people who have to leave our accommodation today often do not find a place elsewhere.
Our resources are often insufficient to adequately meet the basic needs of the women and children we serve. Women find themselves caught in a vicious cycle where leaving violence often seems synonymous with financial insecurity, homelessness and a daily struggle for survival. Support systems are underfunded and underestimated in their importance and their crucial expertise in providing a safety net to abused women and children.
We ask :
1. Massive investments in social housing to address the housing crisis which particularly affects women and children fleeing violence.
2. A significant increase in the budgets allocated to shelters so that each woman can benefit from the support necessary for her reconstruction and independence.
3. Concrete measures to combat poverty and homelessness among women, including economic integration programs and long-term financial support.
Together, we can transform these multiple crises into an opportunity to build a more just, more equitable, safer and violence-free society. This responsibility cannot, and must not, rest solely on the shoulders of our organizations, on the shoulders of our workers and all those working in the community. Every woman deserves to live without fear, without precariousness and with the hope of a better future.
Responsibility must be collective.
We count on your support and immediate action. The time to act is now.