Women at Halifax shelter concerned by new 2-month stay policy amid housing crisis

Residents of a shelter for women fleeing domestic abuse in Halifax were shocked when they received a letter in late September saying they had two months to find permanent housing and leave Bryony House.

Some had already been living there for six months to a year while they searched for a safe and affordable accommodations in a city with skyrocketing rents and one of the lowest vacancy rates in the country. 

CBC News spoke to four women connected to the shelter who are concerned about the policy. They've asked to remain anonymous, fearing for their safety. 

If they have to leave before they find a new place to live, they said they fear becoming homeless or being forced to move back in with their abusers.

"I don't want to stay stuck in a cycle like this, but it's hard to see a way out," said one woman who has been staying in the shelter for months.

In September, CBC News reported that a lack of affordable housing was causing backlogs in transition houses, leading to stays being extended up to a year across Nova Scotia.

Bryony House said its new policy is an attempt to get back to its original mandate of providing stays as long as six weeks, and to avoid turning women away because beds are full.

"The intent was never for this to be a permanent solution for anyone," said Bryony House executive director Monika Hintz. "Because we need to be supporting people who are in the throes of experiencing intimate partner violence."

The letter sent to residents in September said extensions to the two-month policy will be considered on a case-by-case basis. But some residents are still worried.

"It was a move that made me feel like I was back in my house with my abuser," one woman said. "I wasn't the only one. A lot of women felt that way, and there were some that did go back."

The residents CBC News spoke to said they want to leave the shelter, but it's challenging.

It can take years to get a spot in public housing. Other housing geared to income, including for women fleeing intimate partner violence, is full across the province.

"I had been looking for at least a year prior to even having to leave my ex-partner's home," another woman said. "I've probably looked at at least 150 to 200 places just in the last couple of months."

Bryony House says rule isn't new

Bryony House is the largest women's shelter in the province, housing up to 36 women and children. Hintz said 40 women and 20 children are currently on the waitlist.

She said the housing crisis has caused stays to creep up to the year mark or longer, but that isn't sustainable as demand for the shelter's services grows.

"This is a fairly common practice that does happen across the province, as well as across the country, at other shelters," Hintz said in an interview Friday. 

"We also have to recognize the high demands. We have higher than normal call volume, along with an extensive waitlist."

Demand for services and shelter beds for women fleeing domestic abuse has been rising for years but the pandemic pushed it over the edge, said Lise Martin, executive director of Women's Shelters Canada.

"Across the country, most shelters are almost every night at capacity," Martin said. "So that means that they're having to turn women and children away on a daily basis."

Similar problems across Canada

Because there is "no housing" for women to go to, they're staying in shelters longer and that's causing backlogs in urban and rural areas alike, Martin said.

"There's definitely a direct link between the lack of safe and affordable housing and domestic violence," Martin said. "In order for a woman to rebuild her life, to be able to secure a job, to take care of her children in the way that she wants to, she needs safe and affordable housing."

Last March, the Nova Scotia government announced an additional $8 million to help groups that support women experiencing gender-based violence to meet the increased demand for their services and address rising operating costs.

Nova Scotia Housing Minister John Lohr also said in a September interview that the province is "deeply sympathetic" to people fleeing domestic violence. They are placed at the top of the public housing wait-list, but still have to wait for a unit to become available.

As of January, the public housing priority-access wait-list, which included 117 people across the province, had an average wait time of 1.6 years. For the 4,790 people on the non-priority list, the average wait is just over two years.

Hintz said the Halifax shelter has had luck finding accommodations for some women, and those who aren't able to find a rental by the two-month mark could get an extension. But she knows that's not a permanent solution.

"The only answer, it's what everyone else would say — it's more housing," Hintz said. 

The women staying at the shelter who CBC News spoke to echoed that plea.

"If something is wrong, you have to say something," one of them said. "Not a lot of people do that these days, and that's what the world needs. We need housing, we need resources for abused women."

People in Nova Scotia affected by intimate partner violence can call or text the provincial toll-free line at 1-855-225-0220 or contact their local shelter organization.