Emergency shelter for women in Cambridge could be coming this fall

Cambridge could get a shelter for women as early as this fall —  the first of it’s kind for the city.

CEO of YWCA Cambridge, Kim Decker, confirmed an emergency shelter for women is in the works but they can’t announce anything until they find the right location and determine service partners.

“This will be the very first ever shelter for unhoused women that Cambridge has had,” she said. “There is obviously women’s crisis services and a shelter here in Cambridge that provides shelters for women and their families who are survivors of intimate partner violence, but we have never had a shelter for women in Cambridge.”

The region approved operational funding for an emergency shelter in December as part of the 2024 budget process.

Decker wants the community to know they are working as fast as possible to establish an emergency shelter in Cambridge before winter.

“We certainly know that there’s a need and we’re just asking folks to hang on. Hopefully we can make an announcement soon in the future to let them know where and when a shelter might be available here.”

Ever since the public found out they were approved for funding, Decker said YWCA Cambridge gets about three calls a week from people looking for somewhere to stay.

“There is such a need, and folks are looking for space and we just cant give it to them right now. But thankfully we are working on a plan so that there will be something in the future. We know that Cambridge women deserve better, and we do not want to go through another winter where women are unhoused,” said Decker.

The emergency shelter would be a 24/7 operation with embedded services.

“We’re looking to work with other partners in the community for mental health and addiction supports, conflict resolution, healthcare, community outreach: all of those kinds of things,” she said.

Decker added they want to do shelter differently than it’s been done before. Their proposal to the region included space for 20 shelter beds.

In a statement to 570 NewsRadio, the Region of Waterloo said, “the YWCA Cambridge has been actively seeking a location for an emergency shelter for women in Cambridge. Regional staff continue to work with the YWCA Cambridge throughout this process.”

Before applying for funding, YWCA Cambridge spent almost a year putting together a research report to get a better picture on women experiencing homelessness in Cambridge. They found one of the reasons there isn’t much information is because women experiencing homelessness are often hidden.

They contacted other service providers in the region to see what they were experiencing and found that the situation is hitting a crisis level. Decker said there are women in Cambridge staying hidden, couch surfing and sleeping in cars to maintain their safety due to a lack of places for them to go.

In that research report, YWCA Cambridge pulled data from 2022’s Project Willow, as well as data from Statistics Canada and regional data. They also interviewed local service providers, experts, politicians and other people in the field to get a full picture.

Surveys were also distributed to nonprofit and public sector leaders in Cambridge, and an environmental scan was conducted to learn more about existing shelter models and reviewed the current system.

Through that, YWCA Cambridge estimates that 6,200 women in the city are considered low-income, while 5,650 one parent families are women-led compared to 1,575 led by men.

They determined that there are 562 emergency adult shelter beds in the region, but none of them are dedicated to women in Cambridge. Of that, only 13.8 per cent of shelter beds are dedicated to women in the rest of the region.

The research study also found 38 transitional housing units across the region, with zero dedicated to women in Cambridge. There are 86 supportive housing units across the region dedicated to women, zero of which are located in Cambridge.

According to the Women’s National Homelessness and Housing Network (WNHHN) current ways of measuring or counting people in the shelter are unreliable, because women are more likely then men to experience hidden homelessness. They estimate that seven per cent of women in Canada will experience hidden homelessness.

YWCA Cambridge compared that to the population data for Cambridge from 2021 Statistics Canada census data and estimates that means about 5,089 women in Cambridge currently or will in the future experience hidden homelessness.

A new Instagram account was created recently called WR Women’s Shelter Now, trying to spread awareness about the need for emergency shelter for women, not just in Cambridge, but for the whole region.

Decker mentioned they are not affiliated with the social media account.

The Instagram group is planning a protest during an upcoming regional council meeting on Aug. 13 at 9 a.m. at 150 Frederick St., asking the community to fill up the Zoom room.

They want a say in the future of 84 Frederick St. in Kitchener, which used to be a shelter for women that closed its doors recently.