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Somebody Must Say These Things is an 8-part series that fully investigates Violence Against Women in Nova Scotia. By speaking with survivors and the women who make it their mission to end the issue for good, this podcast casts a stark, unapologetic light on our society’s continued insufficient acknowledgement of Violence Against Women. We follow the stories of survivors and examine the critical, unappreciated role of transition houses. We also speak with the boots-on-the-ground workers who fight everyday to help women and children in need. Together, their insights offer a new, clear perspective on the current status of abuse and violence in the province of Nova Scotia and what we need to do to ensure a brighter tomorrow.
Our hope is that by sharing their stories, you will become an advocate for change.
This podcast was made possible by the Transition House Association of Nova Scotia. THANS exists to eliminate violence against women in Nova Scotia. Their organizations provide a full range of support services to women and their children in a safe, supportive environment and provide survivors of violence with opportunities to learn about available resources and alternatives to facilitate informed personal choices and decisions."
THANS is not 100% government funded by the provincial or federal government. This needs to change. Go to thans.ca to learn how you can help.
This podcast is narrated by Grace McNutt.
Produced by Podstarter.
Unknown Speaker
Content warning. This podcast contains depictions of and discussions on gender based violence. Audience discretion is advised.
Ginger MacPhee
It's time to move home. You may be a renter searching for a new apartment. Or maybe you got on the property ladder, and you're looking up to the next rung. For renters, you browse the listings and feel a little shocked. For the price you're used to paying. You can only afford a smaller, older property to stay on par is going to really push your monthly budget. And when you call around, it gets worse. Competition for a decent place is red hot. Every time you find something you think has potential, it's gone before you can pick up the phone. And for homebuyers, well, it's different, but certainly still much worse. Higher interest rates mean you can only just afford your own home. Come next mortgage renewal, maybe you should sell and downsize. Yes, prices have risen. But now homes that you could afford to buy three years ago, are out of reach. Everyone is making hard decisions about one of the most important parts of our lives, our homes, our neighborhoods and the community that surrounds us. Decisions we never expected to make. It's hard, sleepless nights and long conversations become the norm. It's never been like this. It's expected
News Reporter 1
The Bank of Canada will hike interest rates again tomorrow making borrowing money more expensive and driving up the cost of a mortgage. A surge in home prices is pushing housing affordability closer to historic lows.
News Reporter 2
Owning a home is one thing while renting is another but whatever option you choose, it isn't pretty these days.
News Reporter 3
Renters now facing record high rates and looking for any sign of relief.
Brenda Wood
Years ago, there was much more housing available. So when women came in, often it would only be for six weeks, and they would already find housing and off they go. We also didn't have the same connection with them. Because they I don't know what was different whether mental health was in serious addictions weren't as serious or we just weren't recognizing it. And then over the years, the housing became shorter and shorter. COVID kind of threw it into a cycle where all of a sudden, housing was just disappearing, totally disappearing.
Ginger MacPhee
For victims of gender based violence, housing becomes profoundly more difficult. In this housing landscape, imagine fleeing an abusive partner, knowing that you will be severely reducing your access to housing, leaving your community and potentially leading your kids down a path of uncertainty. Domestic violence is a leading cause of homelessness for women and children.
Brenda Wood
I wasn't allowed to leave the house, but I enrolled the kids in school and in the bus stop was like just like I could see it from the window. And I was always arguing like why am I not allowed to leave? Why am I not? I had no idea why. And the people Leeside were like I've never heard of this. I've never seen this, but if you leave, we have to report it. I found out later on that he had been married once and then he'd been married twice, which I never knew. He assaulted both of his ex wives. And they both left and he went to jail. So that's where I realized that it wasn't that Leeside wasn't letting me leave. They were trying to protect me.
Ginger MacPhee
Among intimate partner victims, 30% of women stated that physical sexual or psychological abuse had occurred, either on a monthly basis or more often. How can you stay when you live in such a terrifying environment?
Jodi McDavid
It's always been an issue for women who are experiencing violence, concerns about housing concerns about housing their children themselves. And we do see a lot of women who end up in these situations longer than they would have liked because of how difficult it is to get out of it emotionally. Yes, financially, perhaps more so. They know that if they leave that situation, they will struggle to keep a roof over their head. A lot of people will put in for social housing but the waitlist is like two or three years. So you do get a lot of people who are staying in situations a lot longer than they want to.
Ginger MacPhee
Fear is considerably more common among women who experience intimate partner violence. Nearly 4 in 10, 37% of women who were intimate partner violence victims, said that they were afraid of a partner at some point in their life.
Jodi McDavid
And then we also get into the things where especially around here, where everybody knows everybody, that say, if you go and stay with like your mother, your mother is really scared that your ex is going to come and burn the house down like he's threatened. Right? So, you know, you get people who are able to go to their mothers for a couple of days, but they can't stay there because of the potential danger.
Ginger MacPhee
One thing's for sure. The housing crisis is a crisis for some of us, and a profound tragedy for others. Welcome to Somebody Must Say These Things. I'm your host, Ginger McPhee.
Brenda Wood
People were buying up housing turning, turning it into Airbnbs, which is pulling it out of the rental market.
Ginger MacPhee
This is Brenda wood. She works with women transitioning back into community living at Chrysalis House, she's been working in the sector for over two decades.
Brenda Wood
The cost of rent went through the roof, there was a lot of reno evictions, a lot of leases not being renewed. A lot of things like I'm buying up these properties, and I've got family moving in. So therefore you have to leave and so people were finding themselves un-housed, even seniors. I remember speaking with Project Hope, in that one week, she had someone in their 80s and two people in their 70s that suddenly had no housing. So that's the kind of thing that we walked into when we come back. While it was a struggle before, from COVID, it was kind of like there was nothing even with subsidized housing. The waiting lists got longer.
Ginger MacPhee
In this episode of Somebody Must Say These Things. We are looking to understand the deep crisis around housing, the impact it has on those who experience intimate partner violence, and the amazing women fighting back. Here's Willow Houses, Jody McDavid
Jodi McDavid
Things were difficult through COVID. And we saw people had their wages impacted and things like that. For us here Fiona did hit us really hard. A lot more people seem to be financially struggling.
News Reporter 1
The east coast of Canada bracing for what could be one of the strongest storms to hit the country
News Reporter 3
Canada is not I would say in a hurricane zone are hurricane alley, but they're going to get the next impacts from Fiona.
News Reporter 2
We've never seen that much concentration of extreme devastation like that
Speaker 1
There were trees down everywhere, there were traffic lights ripped down. Lots of flooding
News Reporter 2
My vehicle was partly submerged
Buildings houses, as it turned out that we're in smithereens, and in many cases swept out to sea.
Jodi McDavid
And then the other thing that we had around the same time was a wave of students for CBU, because a lot of people had deferred during COVID. And so then they allowed them to pick back up. And we ended up I think, with about 3000 More students at CBU than there was supposed to be. So I think that the enrollment there is like 9000. And I feel like it was only It wasn't even five years ago, I don't think when it was like 2500 or maybe 3000. There's such a demand. So people only get so much of a rental subsidy or so much money from social assistance. And we saw in the past few years rent for a single room and a house go from about $550 which was typically a very high end room like that'd be a very nice neighborhood, access to laundry, everything included internet, etc, furnished room. That's where you used to see the price. Till now I've seen some at like $900. In Cape Breton, a lot of people have tried to use their social networks to find some place to stay. And with that often comes some bargaining that they've made in those cases. So again, we do see a lot of women who are in like a survival sex situation that they're allowed to stay somewhere provided that they're giving that person sex. We see a lot of people who, for a variety of reasons, like there's a peace bond, they're not supposed to be near somebody because of past abuse, but that's where they end up having to go or to have a roof over their head, we do see a lot of people who do end up staying with their abuser. What we also see here is that there's no public tent community. Like there are in some other areas, what we have is a number of dispersed tent locations, to the point that some people don't even know where they are. I remember talking to police about something one day, they were looking for a woman, I knew where she tended to camp. I talked to them about that site, because she'd been missing for some time, they didn't know about that site. So it's just there's a number of sites that we know about. Because of our work, people will tell us where they're going to. I mean, I know probably about six. And there are small sites, and they're basically in kind of abandoned commercial industrial areas, or places where there's like low scrub, things like that. So if you think of places like a strip mall that might be kind of on the edge of town. And then it's like, behind the strip mall, like it's those, those sorts of places, which are really not great, because those are places that are often kind of unattended or people don't even think about them existing. Like if you were to draw your town, you're not drawing those areas, it's like it's just a wasteland. So that's difficult, we get a lot of people here, staying in derelict buildings, you get a lot of people staying in old Arby's and things that aren't winterized.
Ginger MacPhee
This is what Brenda had to say.
Brenda Wood
Even the priority housing suddenly went to a waiting list, which we hadn't seen before. And so for women to find a place is probably one of the greatest stressors they had once they came in. And we had to kind of really spend some time with them just talking about, you're not here for six weeks, we're going to work with you. We're not going to kick you out on the street, we're going to support you and help you. And we've done that. If they cannot get into stable, affordable housing, whatever that means today, they start to reconsider whether they should leave or not. And sometimes we've heard them even say, well, maybe I should go back. Because otherwise I'm going to be homeless. So in order to be safe, they have to have housing.
Michelle Corbett
And it's made women way more vulnerable.
Ginger MacPhee
This is Michelle Corbett. She's a woman's counselor at the Halifax transition House Association and their shelter Bryony house.
Michelle Corbett
I think we've created a situation where in my lifetime, and I went when I was going to school in the 90s. It was recessionary times, there was a lack of opportunities, career wise. But what I remember is how cheap it was to live. I mean, I was certainly poor student poor, I went to school, there was single moms that were getting their degrees, and they were on income assistance. And even though the rates were low, poverty was doable. And what we're dealing with right now is, it's no longer poverty, we're looking at destitution, we're looking at normalizing people that don't have a dwelling. And I'd say 30 years ago, they could, it'd be tough, but they could get an apartment much easier. They you know, the vacancy rate was high. And food was cheaper. So she could still, she could still live and was tough. Now it's become almost impossible.
Ginger MacPhee
Again, Brenda, from Chrysalis House.
Brenda Wood
Where do you put your food? Where do you cook? Where do you look after your children? Where, where do you sleep at night, if you do not have that in place? If you feel like you're forced to go back, particularly if you have children, the risk to the woman is greater than before, because once a woman leaves, and then she goes back her risk increases, because now he knows that she will leave the risk to the children increase. Housing is an essential need for anyone. But for women who are leaving a situation of violence is vital. They cannot do anything else. They cannot go to work. They cannot go back to school, they cannot even feel safe. Without that they cannot progress in any other way. Because you're still living in a constant state of survival. And in a constant state of fear. It's not getting any better. I think it's actually getting worse. I think the violence is increasing in the degree of violence, which is really alarming for me, considering I've been in this for so long. I don't want to see this.
Ginger MacPhee
Again. Here's Jody McDavid.
Jodi McDavid
The short supply of housing, as well as just the cost of housing has definitely made this a lot worse. I know people from all walks of Life who've gone through things like separation and divorce, and also people who had different financial abilities, right. And the thing is now, even if you had the money, you couldn't do it, you'd have to go stay in a hotel or something you're talking about, you'd have to have an exorbitant amount of money in order to be able to leave, you know, or the ability to go and buy a house or something. But of course, the prices of houses have inflated. So basically, the only women now that have the money to leave an abusive partner, are professional women who might be the primary breadwinner in that household. That's it is totally based on privilege, it is 100% based on privilege. Before all of this, it used to be a lot of the transition houses, had like a six week plan to have somebody in, provide them with some support, get them anything that they might need, like medical appointments, or get the kids set up with therapy, all that kind of stuff.
Ginger MacPhee
According to the National Action Plan to end gender based violence, with regards to social infrastructure and enabling environment, while gender based violence occurs across all socio economic groups, populations that already have inequities, such as poverty, homelessness, or inequitable access to health care and social services are at a greater risk of experiencing gender based violence. Jodi McDavid has this to say
Jodi McDavid
The biggest problem when we're full is staff burnout, like, these people are never going to be the same, you know, to have to turn people away and know that they're going to have to sleep on the street, maybe in some cases, it's really difficult for people, if we fill our 21 beds, we've been known to put people in our living room for a couple of nights, until something will free up. This is how we got into this whole situation of having rooming houses, as I say, like the reluctant landlord, like nobody wants to be a landlord, but we had no place to put them and with the cost of room rentals, we thought that that was a good stepping stone for people. So what we kind of consistently are trying to do too, is get people kind of on good footing. And then if they're, you know, if there's room, move them into those into those rooming houses, but the other issue too, is sometimes there's women with children, and it's a homelessness issue is not a domestic violence issue. We're funded for domestic violence, that's our mandate. And so a lot of times is trying to direct them to like social assistance or Red Cross, depending on the nature of why they lost their housing, their MLA, you know, all these sorts of things, because that's, you know, just trying to direct them to the other other resources.
Ginger MacPhee
So how do we fix this?
It was in November 1981, when the board of Halifax transition House Association identified the need for longer term housing for abused women and their children in the metro area. At the time, alternative housing was available for the crisis period only a maximum of six weeks. Even back then, rental units available to low income families were either suitable but overpriced, or affordable, but substandard. Many women had no option but to return to the violent homes they had left, putting their lives and the lives of their children at risk.
A committee was formed to help women transition from a shelter to a permanent home and independence, incorporated in November 1982. Alice house was the second project of its kind to be established in Canada. Its mandate was twofold to provide safe and affordable housing for abused women and their children after the crisis stage, and to provide a supportive environment in which women can make changes they consider important in their lives. The first women came to Alice house in March 1983.
Ann de Ste Croix
Yeah, so second stage housing is longer term housing that is not communal.
Ginger MacPhee
This is Ann de Sts Croix, Coordinator for the transition House Association of Nova Scotia.
Ann de Ste Croix
So our transition houses it's communal emergency living so it's where women and their families would go when they're immediately fleeing their situation and So it really is meant to be temporary because it's again for emergencies. Second Stage housing, on the other hand is still affiliated with our organization. But it's more more closely reflective of like a rental unit. So you can stay there for, I think most of the time, it's up to two years, and you would pay a reduced rent to stay in that apartment. And it's, again, meant to be more independent living, but still surrounded and wrapped into the organization that provides the support to victims and survivors. Second Stage housing provide somewhere for women to go in our province right now, in the midst of a housing crisis, there are very limited options in the private market for housing. So second stage housing is an alternative to the private market, again, where women can stay closely linked with the organizations that provide support and services. Not to say that you wouldn't receive that same level of support and service if you were to go into the private housing market. But there are certain benefits, like I said, you know, drastically reduced rent, for example, because often, finding safe and affordable housing can be quite difficult for victims and survivors as they're coming out of our shelters. So that that certainly helps and again, provides them with more options. There is not enough second stage housing in the province. And as far as in creating more second stage housing, I guess there's two avenues for that there would be building it from the ground up, purposely building and designing these units, or purchasing units that already exist for the purpose of turning them into second stage housing. That would require a lot of time and effort on the part of the organizations as well. So it's a lot of work to manage and oversee the design and creation of second stage housing units as well. So again, with an organization with limited resources, that is trying to both support women and their families, and then also do that office under their desks. That that's a lot.
Ginger MacPhee
Alice house now has 12 employees, and its own voluntary board of directors. This means Nova Scotia has had a model solution for 40 years. So why is this issue bigger than ever? Research has shown that housing remains one of the leading barriers for women escaping violence, and that domestic violence is one of the main causes of homelessness among Canadian families. In the 2017 report by women's shelter Canada, where more than 400 shelters were surveyed across Canada, the issue of housing was repeated. Quote, the lack of affordable housing is a significant barrier for survivors to move into secure housing, with only 31% of violence against women's shelters indicating that residents were able to find and acquire affordable housing during their stay at the shelter.
Laurie McGinnis
We are always or mostly running at capacity. If we have a bed or two available, they get filled quickly.
Ginger MacPhee
This is Laurie McGinnis. She's the counseling supervisor at the Halifax transition House Association and their shelter Bryony house,
Laurie McGinnis
sometimes the people on our waitlist can't wait any longer so they find other arrangements. So when we go back and check our waitlist, some of those peoples just say sorry, I don't need your services anymore. Other people are eager and come right away. We provide transportation for most people, if they're in the area, we'll provide a cab for them. But again, listening to the response from potential clients when we can't accept them, or if we offer them to go to another shelter and they can't, or they won't. It's it's, it tugs on your heartstrings. You know, we might be staff, but at the very core, we're all human beings, right? We're all human beings. We have great empathy and compassion, and this stuff impacts us and it's not about us. But when you are dealing with a vulnerable, marginalized population with multiple complexities, then you can't help but take some of that on. So we talked about the housing crisis for instance on the news like it's affecting everybody and it is affecting everybody. But we're not talking about it in direct relation to this marginalized group of of survivors.
Ginger MacPhee
The solution is simple. We need more affordable housing. Again, Michelle from Bryony house,
Michelle Corbett
I hope that people are tuning into this podcast at a curiosity and you know, if they have the privilege of of owning some income property, or maybe they have multiple units, that maybe they look at calling up and say, I'd like to make a partnership with your organization, where a property management company, and we you know, we want to do some good work, we want to reserve some units. And we're like, Yeah, sure. And you want some good publicity. Yeah, bring it on whatever we can do. Right. That is my hope. That is my hope that people start to do that. I can't, I can't express how much of a difference that is made. But I'm seeing so many initiatives in the community. One of our women is a woman of color and she was able to move into a brand new apartment that was built specifically for women of color. And in the just outside the Preston community. And we're seeing a lot more local initiatives there were there were they're looking for sort of a target population that they want to serve.
Ginger MacPhee
As of January 2023, the Nova Scotia public housing priority access waitlist, which included 117 people across the province had an average wait time of 1.6 years. For the 4790 people on the non priority list. The average wait is over two years. Data the Department of Municipal Affairs and Housing provided to CBC shows the province has helped fund 954 affordable rental units in the past five years. At the current pace, it would be impossible to meet the target of 33,000 affordable homes Nova Scotia is expected to need over the next decade. If you've heard some of your own story in this episode, and feel a need to reach out for some support, please find your local shelter at THANS.ca. Also, if this podcast and its message resonates with you, and you want to help us in our mission, reach out to your local transition house to hear what their needs are. Each shelter has their own website that you can get directed to from thans.ca