Domestic violence spikes during ‘shadow’ pandemic
Agencies come together to provide transitional housing for women experiencing domestic abuse
Here’s a sobering statistic: Last year, one woman was killed every 2.5 days in Canada, in many cases by an intimate partner. Similar statistics for 2020 may not be available yet, but social workers in the GTA seem to agree on one thing: domestic violence spiked after March, when women became trapped at home with their abusers.
For women’s shelters, COVID-19 has impacted every aspect of how they are able to operate and provide life-saving services and prevention programs to women in crisis.
“We all know that staying home is actually keeping us safe from the virus, but it’s not mentally beneficial,” says Anita, a frontline social worker at Sandgate Women’s Shelter of York Region.
For the safety of her clients, Anita cannot share her last name.
Anita says that while lockdown has been hard on many of us, there’s an added risk to women experiencing domestic violence.
“Now the abuser’s (at) home, he’s not going anywhere,” she says. “He’s also impacted by the (stress of ) lockdown, so of course he’s going to increase the method of abuse toward his victim.”
This situation has led to a direct increase in the number of crisis calls that shelters have received since the pandemic began. Lorris Herenda, executive director of Yellow Brick House, a women’s shelter in York Region, says perpetrators have not only had more opportunity to abuse their partners, but that the stress of COVID-19 has added another layer of volatility within these relationships.
“(The pandemic) is impacting women in a tragic way because they are not able to escape if they are stuck at home with their perpetrator,” says Herenda.
“We all know how being isolated impacts our mental health — now imagine adding violence to that, and not being able to escape.”
According to Michelle Smith, executive director of Sandgate, domestic assaults in the region have surged by roughly 25 per cent, but isolating at home has made it difficult for women to reach out. Both Sandgate and Yellow Brick House are United Way-supported organizations, receiving funds that enable them to run crucial services and programs.
“We saw a lot of women at the onset (of the pandemic) getting ready to leave their situation, who (stayed with their abuser),” says Smith. “They did not have the outlets to make plans for their exit strategies. Many of our women would call (the centre) when they were taking their kids to school, or on their lunch hour at work, and that became a barrier because women didn’t have access to making those calls.”
These organizations have been working tirelessly to come up with new ways to remove obstacles for women needing to escape abuse during the pandemic.
A multi-language campaign earlier in the spring that encouraged women to reach out via text or social media brought an increase in calls to these centres.
But that was just one piece of the puzzle. From there, staff had to find a way to shelter women in imminent danger and sketch out safety plans, while following public health directives.
“Initially, we were lacking the infrastructure and resources, and really had to think fast on our feet to devise a way to deal with our families, because at first we weren’t able to adhere to public health guidelines,” says Herenda. “How could we make sure that no woman and no child is stuck at home with a perpetrator because we couldn’t come up with an innovative solution?”
Finding a way to mitigate two very real dangers — the danger of abuse, versus the danger of contracting or spreading COVID-19 — has been an ongoing struggle, admits Anita.
“We had to basically prioritize,” she says.
“Women were forced to stay (with their abuser) because shelters were full. A mother would think twice before taking that step, because, ‘OK, I want to leave, but at least I’m safe (from COVID) here in the house.”
The solution was to create a sort of triage system.
“(The pandemic) is impacting women in a tragic way because they are not able to escape if they are stuck at home with their perpetrator.” LORRIS HERENDA, YELLOW BRICK HOUSE
With the support of United Way Greater Toronto — which receives funds through the federal Reaching Home investments in York Region, part of Canada’s Homelessness Strategy — they were able to create self-isolation units where women could be tested for COVID-19, quarantine until her results came back, and then move to a hotel or shelter.
This meant centres could continue providing immediate safe shelter for women, but distancing protocols have impacted staff’s ability to work one-onone with clients.
For women in self-isolation, they might be able to receive counselling through Plexiglas dividers, but many more have had to rely on phone calls to stay connected.
“It’s obviously not the same,” says Anita, adding that isolation has continued to be hard on many of the women and children seeking shelter. “We had a client who had an autistic child. She told me so many times, ‘Anita, I’m very close to going back to my husband because of the isolation.’
“She had those thoughts so many times.”
COVID-19 has also impacted women’s ability to move on to next steps like finding housing
— a process called the “moving forward plan” — because of the difficulty in visiting potential suites and sourcing affordable units during the pandemic. Through it all, staff has remain committed to helping women and championing for more affordable housing.
Despite all the hard work, there’s an ongoing and urgent
need for the immediate crisis support, counselling, safety planning, advocacy and legal support these shelters provide.
“This is a journey that happens to a woman and is caused by him, it’s not caused by her. We need to be able to assist these families to break free from violence by giving them the resources and support they
need,” says Herenda.
“I know people feel very hopeless right now in general, let alone adding (on) the layers of domestic violence,” adds Smith. “We just want people to know we are there to support them. Know you are not alone.”