YWCA leaders urge Ontario to declare intimate partner violence an epidemic

Women fleeing violence and living in shelters often need to wait around three years for permanent, affordable housing — whereas it once took around three months, says YWCA Hamilton chief executive officer Medora Uppal. 

Uppal described the change she’s seen over recent decades to the Ontario Legislature’s Standing Committee on Justice Policy on Wednesday, in a bid to ask the province to declare an epidemic of intimate partner violence.

The increased wait time for housing is evidence of how supports across the province are “typically underfunded or unfunded” and struggling to meet the demand that has come with an increase in violence against women and gender-diverse people. 

“There are those who [leave violent homes] and realize there is nowhere to go,” she said.

“Shelter staff are overworked and underpaid and put in a position to repeatedly turn away women and children in crisis — brutal work which is taking a toll on all of us.” Link to story here.