The closure of the YWKW women’s shelter at 84 Frederick this past June left an obvious gap in emergency shelter for women and gender-diverse folks in Waterloo Region. However, the lack of such services had been felt in Cambridge long before 84 Frederick closed. There has never been an emergency shelter dedicated solely to women and gender-diverse individuals in Cambridge. While The Bridges shelter had previously operated as a co-ed space, it transitioned to a men’s only shelter during the pandemic.
“Cambridge has never had a women’s shelter despite lots of effort and continued effort from YW Cambridge. It shows a real system gap that we’ve had for decades. We were relying on 84 Frederick to provide all services to all women and non-binary people in this region,” Erin Dej, an associate professor of criminology at Wilfrid Laurier University, said.
“Women from Cambridge had to travel to Kitchener and leave their support systems, if they were able to even get into the shelter. Yes, women can go into the co-ed shelter, women fleeing violence can go to the crisis shelter. But women, especially those with children, right now don’t have a shelter to go to,” Marjorie Knight, a local housing advocate, said.
That is changing this month however, as the YW Cambridge opens a temporary women’s shelter at Grace Bible Chapel in Galt. The shelter will provide 20 beds, operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Through the proposed operating model, the shelter is expected to support single women, gender-diverse, and non-binary adults, while also supporting other various demographics through on-site supports. “The proposed operating model prioritizes harm reduction, restorative justice, and relational models for support. On-site supports include housing, primary and mental health, cultural, life skills, and service navigation,” the Regional Council report stated.
The Project Willow report, which examined women’s homelessness in Waterloo Region, found women who are experiencing homelessness do not access local supports or services for fear of violence, family situations involving children, or feelings of shame.
“In Cambridge, there is nowhere for a woman experiencing homelessness to go. National research bears out that women and gender-diverse individuals do not enter co-ed or male-dominated spaces,” Roz Gunn, Director of Communications and Advocacy with YW Cambridge, said.
The YW’s Women’s Homelessness in Cambridge report outlined several trends: women’s homelessness is glossed over as a community issue, Cambridge is a service desert for women experiencing homelessness, there is a lack of a continuum of housing leaving few options for women, and there is a problematic reliance on services in other communities to support women. “Historically, women’s homelessness in Cambridge has been largely unacknowledged and therefore inadequately understood and addressed,” that report stated.
To gain an understanding of the number of people experiencing homelessness locally, The Region of Waterloo engages in a Point in Time (PiT) count. However, since many women experiencing homelessness are largely hidden, it can be difficult to capture accurate data. With that in mind, several local organizations such as the AIDS Committee of Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo & Area (ACKWAA), the Coalition of Muslim Women, and Marillac Place partnered with the YW Cambridge to intentionally address that gap in data.
“We want to help women get out of homelessness quicker and ideally prevent it from happening altogether. We're never going to get to that point if we don't have data that can support decisions and encourage funding from upper tiers of government,” Jennifer Gordon, manager for advocacy and research for YWCA Cambridge, said.
YW Cambridge chief executive officer Kim Decker spoke to Cambridge Council on Oct. 22, 2024 about the proposed temporary women’s shelter at Grace Bible Chapel. Decker said that her team has spent two years preparing for this shelter, including research and planning.
“A women’s emergency homeless shelter has been so desperately needed in Cambridge. Women deserve a safe and supportive place to go when they’re experiencing what’s often the worst and most traumatic time of their lives,” Decker said.
Cambridge Councillor Adam Cooper expressed concerns about the YW shelter and that residents were not consulted. He also expects it might add to issues that he says residents are seeing at The Bridges shelter. “We have a community that is dealing with the fallout of mismanaged shelters and we are trying to sort that as opposed to add to it. We are going to be making things worse, despite the good goals,” Cooper said.
Kim Decker said the model for the women’s shelter is very different from The Bridges shelter in capacity, in the services and supports that it will offer, and that it is open 24 hours a day, seven days per week, whereas The Bridges residents must leave the shelter during the day.
“I have spoken personally to the businesses in the area and we did a 500-metre mail drop to folks and in fact, all we got back was positive comments and the community asking us how they can help establish the shelter,” Decker said. The shelter is expected to open this month.
Waterloo Regional Council heard from many delegations on Aug. 13, 2024, in general support of an emergency shelter dedicated to women and gender-diverse individuals.
Delegate Sidney MacDonald spoke on behalf on an individual named Krissy who shared her experience of fleeing domestic violence, living on the streets for a period of time, and then finding support from Anselma House. “Though we were still very much unhoused, we felt like we were a part of a community. Women and non-binary people supporting each other is a power incomparable to anything else I have ever witnessed,” Krissy said.
Delegate Eddy Grignon is a former client of a women’s shelter. “I left a relationship a broken person. I walked into a doctor’s office who gave me the info for a women’s shelter. That women’s shelter saved my life. We need the infrastructure to be in place so that people like me can live,” Grignon said.
Citizens for Cambridge, a volunteer organization advocating for “the development of a better community for all”, argues that additional supportive housing in Cambridge is also needed to improve the health and well-being of its most vulnerable members. "In Cambridge, the gap between the availability and need for supportive housing is steadily growing. Without significant investment in supportive housing, we are failing those who need help the most,” Anne Tinker, former Director of the Cambridge Shelter Corporation (The Bridges), said.
Currently, Cambridge has fewer than 25 supportive housing units - an issue that Citizens for Cambridge believes is a crisis in the making. They are calling for political leaders to recognize that the cycle of homelessness and poverty will not end without more investment in supportive housing.
“We need a concerted effort from all levels of government to fund and support the expansion of supportive housing in Cambridge. The community's health and the well-being of its most vulnerable members depend on our ability to provide comprehensive, long-term housing solutions,” concludes Citizens for Cambridge.
The Women’s Homelessness in Cambridge report agrees that action is required from all levels of government and sectors. “Realizing the human rights of women, girls and gender diverse individuals experiencing homelessness, requires deep investments, cross sectoral collaboration, and policy change.”
Cambridge hopes to welcome its first-ever women’s-only shelter this month, in part due to the hard work and advocacy of local individuals and organizations, and individuals with lived experience, who have long identified this gap in housing services in the city.
A slightly edited version of this piece appeared in The Community Edition’s December issue.