Brampton's new housing for women escaping violence is already full

Since eloping from foster care at age 13, Ashley has spent over a decade in search of a home.

Ashley says she was physically abused in her childhood, trafficked as a teenager and abused by her recent partner. She gave birth to her son at 16, and spent the next eight years or so living in and out of temporary shelters — years she describes as "stressful and scary." 

CBC Toronto has agreed to shield her full name over safety concerns.

Today, the 27-year-old lives in a newly-built two-bedroom apartment in Brampton with her son and two cats. That apartment is part of Armagh House, a non-profit organization that aims to help women and children escaping violence. 

"It was the first time I really had a stable home and place to go," she said through tears, recalling her journey to get to a spot in Brampton's first transitional housing program. 

Armagh House provides Peel's only transitional housing — for a minimum of $120 per month to 30 per cent of someone's salary for two to four years — until they can either afford a rental or get subsidized housing. The Brampton building consists 14 modern-looking one and two-bedroom apartment units for women and their children escaping, and opened this January.

But with 12 women and 16 kids already calling the facility home, it's already full.

Intimate partner violence has topped the list of all crimes reported in Peel Region since 2022, according to Peel Public Health. And with cases on the rise, officials say they need millions of dollars in funding from the province to help tackle the problem.

The province says starting this year, the government will spend some $7 million per year to support transitional housing, but won't say how much of that will go to the region.

Jannies Le, Armagh House's executive director, says she's concerned that with high demand and limited units, women like Ashley will go without housing or return to their abuser in a city where intimate partner violence was declared an epidemic last year. 

She says women rely heavily on a system that's already "inundated with need and services."

Peel Public Health told CBC Toronto that as of 2022 – the most recent information available – police in the region responded to some 16,000 incidents of family and intimate partner violence. That amounts to nearly 43 incidents a day or two every hour. Women make up nearly 80 per cent of all victims in the region. 

Nancy Polsinelli, commissioner of Peel Public Health, says that the cost to support its its network of agencies for victims is $10 million and that doesn't include "extra funding pressures" for police, the Children's Aid Society, child welfare or shelter beds. Another $18 million is needed each year to support victims of abuse, she said in a statement.

But the province has declined funding applications from some of Peel's shelters and housing organization like Armagh House, says Polsinelli.