Ottawa, 24 March 2026 – Today, Women’s Shelters Canada (WSC) released Sheltering Under Pressure: Frontline Realities of Canada’s Violence Against Women Shelters & Transition Houses. Generously funded by the Royal LePage® Shelter Foundation™, the report outlines how shelters are operating under sustained pressure from chronic underfunding, aging infrastructure, workforce pressures, and the ongoing housing crisis.
Sheltering Under Pressure provides key data on the increased demands on shelters that support women, children, and gender-diverse people fleeing violence. More than half of respondents (57%) report higher rates of gender-based violence post-pandemic; 52% report an increased severity in violence. Three-quarters (75%) indicate that the overall demand for their services has continued to increase.
However, the resources to keep pace with these increased demands have not materialized. More than half of women’s shelters cannot cover operating expenses without fundraising, and 10% cannot do so even with fundraising. The vast majority (84%) say that inflation and the cost of living are major challenges, citing increasing operational costs outpacing increases in operational funding. In the past 12 months, 23% of shelters reported reducing or cutting a program due to a lack of funding.
“Shelter workers across Canada face the daily reality of doing more with less,” said Anuradha Dugal, executive director of Women’s Shelters Canada. “They support survivors through increasingly challenging and complex situations with limited staff, resources, and space. Although this can feel isolating, our new report shows that these are sector-wide challenges that require policy and systems change.”
Along with the affordable housing crisis, which is directly causing longer stays in shelters and consequently higher turn-away rates, rising rates of violence can cause survivors to feel trapped without safe options. At the same time, shelters are doing everything they can to keep survivors safe; 80% of emergency shelters and 65% of second stage shelters report extending stays beyond their policies.
Additionally, shelters are increasingly responding to external crises that they were not designed or resourced to absorb and without systems-level support. These include the opioid crisis, tech-facilitated gender-based violence, and climate emergencies.
“Without sustained funding, infrastructure investment, and housing solutions,” continued Dugal, “shelters’ capacity to support survivors is being stretched to the breaking point, putting survivors’ safety at risk. All of these issues are felt more acutely in rural, remote, northern, and Indigenous communities.”
Overall, Sheltering Under Pressure highlights a sector that is indispensable to Canada’s response to gender‑based and intimate partner violence, yet is operating under conditions that are neither sustainable nor equitable.
“It is important to the legacy of this 28-year Foundation, which is singularly focused on intimate partner violence, to fund groundbreaking research like this,” said Lisa Gibbs, executive director of Royal LePage® Shelter Foundation™. “Sheltering Under Pressure is the only report in Canada to offer this national portrait of the women’s shelter sector, which is essential when advocating for increased funding and much-needed supports.”
Women’s Shelters Canada, along with provincial and territorial shelter associations and individual women’s shelters, continues to advocate for policy and sectoral changes that support shelters and, ultimately, the people they serve. This includes working towards a National Action Plan to End Gender‑Based Violence that supports a coherent national framework acknowledging shelters as central pillars in Canada’s social and justice systems and as partners in advancing gender equality, reconciliation, and human rights.
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For media enquiries, contact:
Kaitlin Geiger-Bardswich, Director of Communications and Advocacy
kbardswich@endvaw.ca
Women’s Shelters Canada brings together 16 provincial and territorial shelter organizations and supports the over 600 shelters across the country for women and children fleeing violence. If you or someone you know is experiencing violence, you can find your nearest women’s shelter and its crisis line on www.sheltersafe.ca.