Housing for domestic violence survivors desperately needs funding boost, advocates say [Video]

Advocates are calling on Ontario’s next government to ramp up affordable and transitional housing for women fleeing domestic violence, and to increase funding for shelters in the interim so they can meet the growing demand.

At London’s Anova, one of the province’s largest shelters, women and children are staying for as long as 72 days because there’s no other place for them to go, said executive director Jessie Rodger. 

“We’re having women stay longer because of the lack of affordable housing available to them,” Rodger said, adding that lengths of stay at Anova have more than doubled in the last five years.

“We always worry that if women have to stay longer in our shelter and their risk decreases but there’s still nowhere for them to go after they leave us, their risk could dramatically increase again if they’re being forced to go back into a precarious, unsafe living situation.”

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