Windsor shelter steps closer to adding more transitional housing for women

A women's shelter in Windsor that says it often ends up discharging women into homelessness will be one step closer to building more temporary housing. 

In the next few weeks, Hiatus House will be remedying the land across from its current building, at Chatham Street East and Louis Avenue, in preparation for a 40-unit transitional housing building. Transitional housing provides temporary shelter along with social supports for people who are at risk of or are experiencing homelessness. 

Across Windsor, there's very little transitional housing available, specifically for women and families, those in the sector say.

"One of the biggest frustrations that the shelter staff feel, along with the women when they're being discharged, is that they really have nowhere to go; a lot of the time they have no where to go and the staff struggle to discharge women to nothingness," said Sylvie Guenther, executive director of Hiatus House. 

"[The women] want to stay because they don't know what's next in their lives, and sometimes they want to make the change and they're ready to make the change, but we can't help them make that happen because there's nowhere for them to go." 

Right now, Hiatus House has 42 emergency shelter beds and no transitional housing. Typically, it says women stay about six to eight weeks. 

Often times, they are turning women away and can only accept those who they assess are in a higher risk situation. 

But often, Guenther says women leave before they're ready and that can often mean they end up continuously bouncing from one shelter to the next, ending up on the streets, couch surfing or even going back to an abusive relationship. 

Transitional housing, Guenther says, will provide the women more time and space to find their independence. 

"If we can shelter women and make sure they have the resources they need to eat and to care for their children, then we can begin doing some of that other work," she said. 

"That will really give them the freedom to be able to begin to heal while feeling good. And meanwhile, their names will come up on the housing list or they'll find employment ... and then they'll feel ready and secure in making those next steps." 

Gisele Harrison, a registered social worker in private practice and trauma therapist, works with women who have experienced domestic violence and trauma. 

She agrees that more long-term, stable housing with educational, employment and childcare supports would benefit a lot of women who are leaving threatening situations. 

"Traditionally, women leaving a violent, abusive relationship, have often been forced to stay in that relationship because they didn't have the finances to be able to leave," she said.