A staff member carries bedding in one of the suites at Toronto's Interval House, an emergency shelter for women in abusive situations, in 2017.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
Three years after the federal government launched a national action plan to end gender-based violence, more than 60 per cent of shelters are operating beyond their funded capacities at least once a month, with many relying on fundraising to keep their doors open, a comprehensive survey of shelters across Canada has found.
Emergency shelters and transitional houses alike are experiencing staffing crises, aging infrastructure, and increased demand despite shrinking resources, Women’s Shelters Canada said in a report published Tuesday.
The report – based on survey responses from 317 shelters across the country between March and July last year – found that, across the board, shelters and anti-violence organizations “are shouldering growing and increasingly complex demands ... even as they remain underfunded and overextended.”
Both emergency and second-stage shelters reported regularly operating beyond their funded capacities. In the midst of a national housing crisis, shelter stays are getting longer, too – which means people are being turned away more often, potentially sending them back to abusive relationships.
More than 60,000 people (mostly women and children) were taken in by about 560 emergency and second-stage shelters across the country in 2022-23, according to the most recent report from Statistics Canada in 2024.
Nowhere to turn: Shelters can’t keep up with demand to help those fleeing domestic violence
Despite the critical role that anti-violence organizations play in communities, often offering outreach and prevention services, Robyn Hoogendam, a research and policy manager for Women’s Shelters Canada and a co-author of the report, said they remain consistently underfunded.
More than half of the shelters surveyed said they cannot meet their operating expenses without fundraising – and 10 per cent cannot meet them even with fundraising. Nearly a quarter of the organizations surveyed said they have had to cut programming in the past year.
Ms. Hoogendam said her phone calls with directors of small shelters are routinely cut short because the director is suddenly needed to cover a crisis phone line.
“We see that with workers all the time; they act as a cook, and as a child-care worker, and then they answer the phones, and then they also act as a crisis counsellor,” she said.
Robyn Hoogendam, shown in a 2022 handout photo, said front-line workers at shelters are facing more complex cases.Kaitlin Geiger-Bardswich/The Canadian Press
Ms. Hoogendam said front-line workers are also being faced with more complex cases coming into shelters. Clients may be using substances, or struggling with mental- health issues. They have clients who arrive with multiple young children, or adult children with disabilities, or aging relatives they are responsible for.
As a result, staffing burnout and turnover was another major challenge cited in survey responses.
Ms. Hoogendam said they’ve had really good conversations with the Ministry of Women and Gender Equality over the last year, but they are not sure what will happen with the 10-year National Action Plan after the first funding phase expires in March 2027.
“I think there’s a lot of focus on the economy. We understand that, but at the same time, I think we need to have more attention on the cost of violence,” she said.
In 2009 (the most recent such data available), the federal government estimated the total economic impact of spousal violence in Canada to be $7.4-billion.
Across Canada, a woman is killed by an intimate partner roughly every week. The most dangerous place for a woman, statistically, is in her own home.
In 2025, according to the Canadian Femicide Observatory of Canada, 147 women and girls were killed in Canada. An accused killer was identified in 129 of those cases – 116 of whom were men.
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When the long-called-for National Action Plan to end gender-based violence was rolled out by the federal government in 2023 – with $525-million committed over four years – it was pledged that it would provide a framework “for anyone facing GBV to have reliable and timely access to protection and services, no matter where they live.”
But as the first iteration of the plan draws to a close, those on the front lines of the anti-violence sector say a woman’s postal code remains a deciding factor in the supports afforded to her. Northern, remote, rural and Indigenous communities remain especially underserved, Ms. Hoogendam said.
In an e-mail, Erin Quevillon, press secretary for Minister of Women and Gender Equality Rechie Valdez, said government funding has expanded services, strengthened Indigenous led programs and increased prevention initiatives, but “federal investments are intended to complement provincial, territorial, and community funding, not replace them.”
She did not commit to a renewal of the plan, once the funds run out next year, adding that any funding decisions or announcements would be communicated “through official government channels at the appropriate time.”
Victoria Women's Transition House Society executive director Bahar Dehnadi said a lack of consistent, adequate support for the sector means they cannot keep up with demand.Chad Hipolito/The Globe and Mail
At the Victoria Women’s Transition House, staff are busy preparing for their annual gala. The May event is a critical source of income for the organization, which executive director Bahar Dehnadi said relies on fundraising, donations and grants to cover 44 per cent of its roughly $8-million annual budget.
“We are so incredibly lucky because our community is so incredibly supportive that we are able to do it,” Ms. Dehnadi said. “But this is consistently what we do.”
Ms. Dehnadi said a lack of consistent, adequate support for the sector means they cannot keep up with demand, and women often have no choice but to stay with – or return to – their abusers.
The length of stay at their emergency facility, which has 18 beds, is supposed to be 30 days. In the midst of a national housing crisis, she said that’s no longer a reasonable expectation.
The organization opened a new 50-unit, second-stage housing facility last year, those units filled up immediately, and the backlog quickly resumed.
“We just can’t get women into safe spaces that are also affordable, that’s the biggest thing,” she said. As a result, people are going back to the homes and the abusers they fled.
“And it’s demoralizing for staff to continuously see women through these cycles.”