Searching for safety
Housing shortage a barrier for women in abusive situations
HALIFAX — High up among the list of barriers to escaping abuse is access to housing, and Heather Byrne says there’s not enough of it in the region.
Byrne is the executive director of Alice House, a women’s shelter, counselling and support centre in Dartmouth and contributor to the Home for Good 2020 study, which found several barriers that exist and limit women’s access to housing options that are both safe and affordable within Nova Scotia.
Byrne says these findings, coupled with a housing vacancy rate in Halifax of less than two per cent and the COVID-19 pandemic, show housing options are more limited than ever.
In Prince Edward Island, the vacancy rate had started to rise in October 2020 after sitting at the lowest in the country earlier in the year. The latest stats put P.E.I.'s vacancy rate at 2.6 per cent provincewide but only 1.5 per cent in Summerside.
“Housing that is both safe and affordable is key — it allows women to navigate the rest of the process. Leaving when you know it’s not available is not really possible,” Byrne said.
LEAVING NOT EASY
Housing is just one of many barriers to leaving that women in abusive situations face, said Byrne.
Other barriers that make it difficult to leave include their safety, limited incomes and children.
“By the time she leaves, the amount of courage and navigation she’s had to muster up, especially with children, is beyond what many can comprehend,” said Byrne.
This is why Byrne says housing is key, as it allows women to navigate the rest of the process.
As women are often their children’s primary caregiver, incomes are often limited or nonexistent.
Byrne says this means when housing is not readily available, it puts a woman in a position of having to choose between homelessness and a violent household.
“This isn’t a position anyone should find themselves in, but women are finding themselves in it more and more,” she said.
When these factors are combined with the current housing crisis and limits that COVID-19 has placed on shelter occupancies, Byrne said it results in less housing availability and a backed-up shelter system.
PANDEMIC IMPACT
Charlene Gagnon, YWCA advocacy, research and new initiatives manager, said the organization has also witnessed how the pandemic continues exacerbating an
already-strained housing system.
The YWCA saw a big increase in the number of women reaching out for support in 2020, which Gagnon said is due to the lack of affordable housing and explosion of the region’s real estate and rental markets.
She said this situation has made it difficult for the YWCA and other housing organizations to find not just adequate housing but any available housing options to use as subsidized rentals.
“The crisis and pandemic are both impacting organizations’ ability to access marketrent apartments and housing stock. It’s becoming challenging for us as service providers to find units to place people within,” she said.
Shiva Nourpanah, provincial co-ordinator of the Transition House Association of Nova Scotia, says this problem exists not just in urban centres like Halifax and
Dartmouth but also across rural communities where, along with housing, women also lack access to affordable transportation, childcare and employment opportunities.
Nourpanah says a lack of access to these services, along with the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on women, makes women less able to leave their abuser.
“Being pushed back into financial vulnerability can lead to violence,” she said.
“These factor into women’s ability to escape domestic violence.”
The fix to this problem is a complex one, said Byrne, but it could start with a simple answer: more housing.
The P.E.I. Department of Social Development and Housing is reporting that a record total of 566 rental units were added across P.E.I. in 2020. Ninety-eight of these were either governmentowned or government-supported.
Byrne says when capacity is increased, more women can access housing and counselling services to help guide them through an incredibly dangerous and complex journey.
“The need for this specialized supportive housing is great right now, especially due to the pandemic,” said Byrne. “The need has grown greater due to COVID-19 and our housing needs to be responsive to that.”