The Quebec Homelessness Prevention Collaborative (QHPC) hosted a bilingual webinar, 鈥淗ousing Security for Women Escaping Violence: The Efficacy of Second Stage Housing,鈥� attended by academics, representatives of the shelter community, and members of the Quebec National Assembly. The event featured a presentation from 91社区 MSc Candidate and 2024 McBurney Fellow Melissa Shemirani, followed by a conversation with discussants Melpa Kamateros of Shield of Athena Family Services and Claudine Thibaudeau of SOS violence conjugale. Art Campbell, Director of the QHPC, and Pearl Eliadis, lawyer, Associate Professor (Professional) at the Max Bell School of Public Policy, and member of the QHPC, also spoke.
Shemirani鈥檚 presentation outlined key findings of her forthcoming publication Safety and Stability: The Urgent Need to Support Second-Stage Shelters for Women Escaping Violence, a rapid review co-authored by Eliadis. The rapid review methodology allows researchers to get policy-relevant information to policymakers quickly while paving the path for further academic research. A policy document outlining the review can be found in English and French on .
A key theme emerging from the review and conversation with discussants is that there is an urgent need to establish an independent funding stream for second-stage housing in Quebec.
Second-stage housing offers women services and a safe, confidentially-located space to stay for up to a year following their departure from an abuser or an emergency shelter. Shemirani and Eliadis鈥檚 review, as well as the professional experiences shared by the discussants, indicates that this form of housing plays a key role in preventing homelessness and preparing women escaping domestic violence for independent living.
While the Quebec government is one of two provincial governments in Canada to provide funding for second-stage shelters, the province still faces a lack of availability of second-stage shelters, and many shelters in the province experience understaffing and service cuts due to budgetary constraints. Discussants at the event shared that the lack of availability of second-stage housing forces women to stay longer at emergency shelters, thus limiting their ability to accept new clients. The lack of housing options for women fleeing domestic violence pushes them into unsafe living situations, or back to their abusers.
Second-stage shelters in Quebec have been criticized for being too costly. The idea that second-stage housing is expensive stems from the fact that is funded through the social housing program. While second-stage housing is more expensive than traditional social housing due to the services and security it provides, its services and security are key to its value. In a step towards realizing the fundamental right to adequate housing, the Quebec government should establish a separate stream to provide ample funding for second-stage housing.
The QHPC was founded in 2021 to bring together members from the academic, community and public service circles, with the aim of formulating and promoting public policy and legal reform recommendations to prevent homelessness in Quebec. Events like these contribute to their mission by getting policy-relevant information into the hands of policymakers.
