Between a report showing that thousands of women are distracted from shelters every year, a front-line worker who helps women affected by gender-based violence in Ontario, has seen that the system has repeatedly thwarted them.
Marilia Dos Santos, a gender-based violence consultant at Toronto’s Abrigo Center, has been working with the weaker people in crisis for 23 years.
“I have seen a lot of heartache,” shared by DOS Santos in an interview with Citynues. “It often starts with a slap, it often starts with the name calling or when the woman is first pregnant … all these years, I don’t think the number is reduced … it’s not getting better.”
Hundreds of women arrive at the Abrigo Center, which provides counseling and support services for the Portuguese community in search of help every year. Sometimes their addicts follow them and the police are called.
Abrigo is not a shelter, but many women are required when they leave an abusive situation. Center will try to find a place in women in an emergency shelter, but it is not easy.
A shelter in Toronto, V/O Nellees, tells Citynuse that they had to remove 439 women alone as they were full.
Citynews asked the provincial government how many times women are removed. A spokesperson did not answer that question, but said, “If the woman’s shelter is in capacity, then women need to be connected directly to another shelter or service, to ensure that women and their children are not overcome when they need help.”
But the reality is that they are being removed.
Last year, the Financial Accountability Office (FAO) assessed the capacity in gender-based violence shelters and really found a place seeking to take shelter for less than a third of women and their dependents.
In 2022/2023, FAO analysis found that 11,545 women were adjusted 37,287 vs. which were removed.
Despite this, the FAO has concluded that there is no plan to increase the number of beds and the number of bed capacity decreased from 2,335 to 2022/2023 in 2017/2018 to 2,018.
In 2019/2020, more than 53,000 women were removed, before the Kovid -19 epidemic. The number of women looking for shelter went down during the epidemic, but is growing again. At the same time, more than 17,000 in 2017/2018, the number of women to be less than 17,000 in 2022/23 is decreasing.
Ontario has 23 Femoids in Otario in the last seven months according to the Otherio Association of Interval and Transition House. It finds that the majority are killed by an intimate partner or family member.
DOS Santos told Citynues that he had never lost the client, but felt a case closely. “She was calling because she was on the other side of the door with a knife.”
“Every matter is different, but the root cause is the same,” Dos Santos explained. “Most of these people also came from violent homes … they believe that [it’s] It is normal because they all know this. ,
Dos Santos loves many successes; Countless women who are able to avoid and rebuild violence.
“I help reflect them, I say, ‘You look. Look how flexible you are.”
After 23 years on front lines, DOS Santos are retiring in September, recently after receiving an award for their work from the Women’s Act, a charity that is trying to end gender-based violence.
Once retired, there is no plan to stop. DOS Santos says that she is planning to continue to help women voluntarily.