Region urged to create temporary emergency women’s shelter as YWKW closes

A petition has continued to circulate online urging the region to create a temporary emergency shelter for women and non-binary people, as the YW Kitchener-Waterloo is closing its shelter space on Frederick Street by the end of the month.

This comes as the region announced last week it plans to purchase the shelter at 84 Frederick St. downtown Kitchener as a replacement for its emergency shelter at 1668 King St. E., which will close its doors in March.

There are shelters specifically for women still in the region, though the CEO of Women’s Crisis Services of Waterloo Region Jennifer Hutton said there is still need for a new emergency shelter to be created.

“We’re full, and as of recently in the past month there have been times when we have gone overcapacity,” she said told the Mike Farwell Show on Wednesday.

Hutton said the organization communicates regularly with other shelter service providers to connect on programs when needed.

“I know Cambridge has been working really hard at having shelter space for that community in regards to homelessness. We know that YW Kitchener is actively working on what will be their next steps. It was great news for us to hear that the region has purchased the shelter on Frederick, we’re waiting on next step details.”

An Associate Professor for the Department of Criminology out of Wilfrid Laurier University, Dr. Erin Dej, was also on The Mike Farwell Show on Wednesday to talk about the gaps in the region’s shelter system.

“As of tomorrow, Waterloo Region will (run) zero beds specially dedicated to women experiencing homelessness. And that is terrifying because what that means is women experiencing violence will be put in unsafe situations,” Dr. Dej said.

“Many women will not go to co-ed spaces: those spaces that have both men and women, because they experience high levels of violence in their lives, and these aren’t safe spaces to be in.”

She said they constantly hear of women that return to a violent household or enter into a violent relationship because they know what they are getting into, rather than not knowing what will happen to them at a shelter or on the street.

“It shows a real system gap that we’ve had for decades: that we were relying on this single shelter to provide all services to all women and non-binary people in the region.”