Space, time and people are precious at busy Regina Transition House

In my shallow little world, a two-game losing streak by the Saskatchewan Roughriders can be defined as a “crisis.”

Then I spend more than an hour chatting with Stephanie Taylor, executive director of Regina Transition House (RTH), and am reminded that real-life crisis situations do not include fumbles, interceptions or strategic gaffes.

Every minute of every day, Taylor and her colleagues at the RTS — one of four Regina women’s shelters that benefit from the Regina Leader-post’s Christmas Cheer Fund — deal directly with mothers (or even grandmothers) and young children who are affected by imminent or actual domestic violence.

“There’s never a day that goes by when we don’t get a call,” Taylor says.

RTH has a capacity of 25 people, plus two emergency spaces. The facility is at full-room capacity 95 per cent of the time.

Complicating matters, Regina’s other women’s shelters routinely face a similar space shortage. If one shelter is full, calls commonly are made in the hope that another facility can accommodate women and children who are in distress.

Sadly, there are only so many spaces.

Consider the case of RTH, which last year received 1,025 calls for shelter but could accommodate only 32 per cent of the people who requested assistance.

“We all try to do our best,” Taylor says. “We don’t want to see a woman who is at a high risk for encountering a violent situation to fall through the cracks.”

If all the spaces in the city are occupied, Mobile Crisis Services provides a valuable option. The snag, though, is that the system is stretched to the seams.

That is especially true at this time of year.

“I think there’s more chaos in people’s lives,” Taylor notes. “As the cold weather hits, there’s more urgency for people to find a safe and stable place to live. You might be able to get by with other things until winter, when you need a roof over your head.

“Things start to ramp up in the fall, and I think families have more chaos in the fall. The kids are going back to school and there’s more stress in terms of jobs.”

The mere act of placing a call to a shelter can induce stress. It is a major step — one that can be the impetus for progress, but also an acknowledgment of a desperate situation that is suddenly devoid of hope.

“It takes a lot of courage to make that call,” Taylor says. “When someone calls and has to wait, they can lose that courage.

“It can become overwhelming for people. Lots of people kind of hit a wall after two weeks (in the shelter). There are lots of positives, and lots of choices to make, but they also realize that there’s a long road ahead of them.”

And that can be daunting. “Their self-esteem is in the