Gender-based violence isn’t new in Ottawa, but with the high cost of living and continued housing crisis, women fleeing domestic abuse are facing more challenging times, says one of Ottawa’s primary shelters for survivors.
Interval House for Women provides emergency shelter to women and gender-diverse people who are in crisis and fleeing domestic abuse and gender-based violence. Their facility has 30 beds and serves survivors of violence and their dependents. This means Interval House serves primarily families, so that women can leave their abuser without leaving their dependents behind. Often, they bring children with them, but sometimes elderly parents or other dependents.
The facility has communal living areas that are shared among clients, including living rooms and a kitchen, as well as a playroom and a separate pet housing area. The many options ensure that women can bring their loved ones — pets included – when they flee abuse.
Interval House also has an outreach program that support clients with transitional housing and a call or text crisis line. But there’s extra pressure on the facility and its programs in recent years.
When the shelter was designed in the 1970s, the intention was for it to be used to emergency, short-based stays, says executive director Keri Lewis. But right now, families are staying at the facility for over a year.
“We have a family here right now that’s been with us for over a year,” she said. “Our shelters are not designed for that. But the families we serve cannot afford market rent, and so they’re residing in our shelter for over a year, until they can access subsidized housing or some kind of rent supplement program.
“We’re serving people of varying incomes, but you have to be earning quite a bit to be able to afford market rent these days,” she added.
And although gender-based violence has always been a problem, recent years saw a spike in reports of domestic violence, she said.
“When the pandemic first happened, it was really, really concerning for those of us working in this field, because actually our phone lines went silent,” said Lewis. “And it was concerning because we realized that with people locked at home, not going to work, not going to school, not going to daycare, not going out at all, the opportunities to reach out for help were eliminated.
“It’s really hard to pick up a phone and call for help when your abuser is in the next room.”
In response, Interval House launched a text and chat line to provide a more “discreet” way of connecting with victims. The project was launched in partnership with other local organizations and allowed victims to reach out quietly, even if in the same room as their abuser.
“That was near the beginning of the pandemic,” she explained. “But then, as time went on and people were stuck at home for longer and longer, when they finally got out and came to us, we noticed an increase in the intensity of abuse, the level of injury, and the severity of it.”
Since the pandemic, these trends have been levelling out as people return to regular activities and organizations like Interval House continue to play catch-up. But now, the cost of living crisis is posing new challenges.
Often, victims wanting to flee abuse now have to choose between remaining in an abusive environment and moving into poverty, Lewis said. Many women rely on the income of their abuser to support their children or living costs; leaving the abuse could mean leaving a house that they own or the income that they depend on.
“That’s always been the case, but these days, with the cost of housing being so high, and the lack of affordable housing, along with the income inequality that we’re seeing just everywhere, people are having to make impossible choices,” she said. “Because the reality is, unless you’re earning really good money, it’s not likely that you’re going to be able to buy a house. It’s actually next to impossible.
“It’s very unlikely that you’re even going to be able to afford market rent in a home that’s large enough to accommodate your family,” Lewis continued. “And so those external pressures of people not having incomes that have kept up with the cost of living increases, and that lack of affordable housing, make it so much harder for people to leave.”
Last year, Interval House received an estimated 2,500 calls to its crisis line requesting support and service. About 800 people had to be turned away from the shelter, and that is just adults — that number does not include their children or dependents. Interval House also responded to 1,500 text and chats in 2023, most of which were looking for shelter, Lewis said.
Lewis said the numbers have not increased drastically, but are “inching” up. The data can be difficult to track, though, because the information is being shared between community groups, but not consistently at the provincial level.
On Nov. 25, which marks International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, Ontario NDP leader Marit Stiles called on Premier Ford to declare intimate partner violence an epidemic. Ford told reporters his party is “100 per cent behind making sure there is zero violence against women” but did not say he would support the opposition bill, called the Intimate Partner Violence Epidemic Act, which would declare it a provincewide epidemic.
The Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses (OAITH) is one of the advocacy groups tracking gender-based violence in the province and recorded 58 femicides between 2020 and 2021. Year-to-date data for 2024 from Oct. 31 tracked 59 femicides.
Of those, six were in October, including one in Ottawa — Brkti Berhe, 36, who was stabbed to death at Paul Landry Park on Uplands Drive. Fsha Tekhle, 36, has been charged with first-degree murder, and police say he was in a relationship with a family member of the victim. The Ottawa Police Service labelled the murder as a femicide.
OAITH defines femicide as a gender-based killing of a woman, child, trans woman, 2-Spirited Person, or gender non-conforming individual where a man has been charged in relation to the death.
Interval House sat on an advisory board with the Ottawa Police Service to advocate that the term “femicide” be brought into use to categorize gender-based homicide against women in Ottawa.
“If we’re not adequately tracking the trend, the numbers of femicides, it’s really hard to address the problem,” she said. “When we label femicides as what they are, we can better track the occurrences and therefore adequately respond with resources to address the growing problem.”
Understanding the warning signs of domestic violence, and intervening early, can also help prevent femicide, said Lewis. This also requires better communications between municipal, community and provincial authorities and organizations, she explained.
But in the wake of the high cost of living and economic pressures that survivors face, Lewis and her team have been working with local organizations to provide more resources and help bridge the gap. One of those projects is the Interval House Second Stage Housing, which broke ground in November.
Currently, the only second-stage, transitional housing facility for survivors of domestic violence is Harmony House. But the Interval House project will add another option, providing housing and support to survivors who are no longer in crisis but need help with the next steps.
The location of the facility is confidential to ensure the safety and security of its clients, and the project was funded by the City of Ottawa.
The facility’s mandate will be to serve people who have survived gender-based violence, even those who are not served by the Interval House shelter.
“It will also be for clients and residents of other local emergency shelters, and the City of Ottawa houses survivors of violence in motels when the shelters are full. So those folks will also be eligible,” she said.
In the application process, aspects like family size, safety risks and other barriers, like immigration status, are considered.
“After people come to the Interval House or another shelter, they have been cared for after a crisis in that emergency stage and are kind of on their feet,” she said. “Then they can move into these this next stage.”
The facility will have 10 “second stage” apartments for survivors of violence where they can have more independence, privacy and a “stable environment” while they wait for the next stage of housing to become available.
“It’s a drop in the bucket. But you know, every little bit counts,” said Lewis. “Between this and the police being able to label things now as a femicide, every little bit helps in fighting this massive issue.”
