Over 2,000 women and children were turned away from transition houses in Mission and Abbotsford in the span of a year.
“It’s getting worse,” SARA For Women executive director Michelle Puffer said.
From April 2022 to March 31 2023, SARA For Women’s transition house in Mission had 730 women and 347 children turnaways while the Abbotsford location had 1,003 women and 577 children turnaways.
During that period, 35 women and 41 children were served in Mission and 45 women and 45 children were served in Abbotsford.
Puffer says when SARA is at capacity and forced to turn someone away, they make an effort to work with other agencies to find space. However, sometimes they can’t. The next option is often trying to find a friend to call.
“We really are trying to make sure if somebody’s fleeing intimate partner violence — if they’ve made that step — we don’t want to give them a reason to go back home,” Puffer said. “We will do everything in our power to find them other locations and sometimes that’s not in our community — sometimes that’s further away.”
At the Mission office, Puffer says more women are showing up who are fleeing domestic violence and/or at risk of homelessness because they can’t find a safe place to go with their kids.
At the Mission Transition House, the SARA For Women team was able to secure housing for the majority of the women who received services and continued ongoing support upon their departure.
“As always, some situations can be very challenging and the team has had to come up with creative ways to work with the legal system as some women fleeing abuse have acquaintances within that network. Collaboration with resources to ensure the women’s safety is always paramount,” SARA For Women’s annual report reads.
In December 2022, severe weather led to the evacuation and closure of SARA’s Santa Rosa facility due to the instability of the structure.
The women and children that were living at Santa Rosa were rehoused within other SARA programs and with client’s families. In total, there were eight women and three children who were evacuated and rehoused between December 2022 and March 2023.
BC Housing is partnering with SARA for Women to redevelop a site in Mission to accommodate up to 60 homes for women and children leaving violence. The project is currently in the design phase, with an expected construction start date of late 2024.
Puffer says the housing crisis is serious for everyone but it can be especially difficult for women and children fleeing domestic violence. She says there are challenges in Mission and the wider Fraser Valley with finding the proper space for housing.
“The goal would always be to have enough housing to house people. But is that realistic? Is there space for it? Is there money for it?” Puffer said.
SARA For Women also has a waitlist of 110 for Stop the Violence counselling and 38 for PEACE (Prevention Education Advocacy Counselling Empowerment), a program for children & youth experiencing violence. Puffer says there’s a need for more funding for counselling programs to meet the need.
“Those are the things that we’re really looking at in this coming year. How do we provide more counselling and more support emotional support, for her now to take that next step? Housing I think is going to be a problem probably until interest rates come down and maybe beyond because we just don’t have the capacity, let alone the funding. But the reality is, even those that have housing we need to be able to support them to make healthy choices,” Puffer said.
In the past year, SARA also closed its warm zone program in Abbotsford due to a variety of factors including increased costs and loss of funding. The warm zone was a daily drop-in centre that “mostly dealt with women in addiction, women experiencing homelessness and women working in the sex trade.”
“It was a place for them to come shower, clean up, have a nap — maybe get some clean clothes, maybe get some food,” Puffer said.
SARA For Women is working to find a location that works in the Fraser Valley to possibly reopen in the future.
“Keeping women safe right now — I mean, you’ve seen all the things that are happening around the world. It’s it’s not a very safe time to be a woman and so trying to keep women safe is our number one priority and trying to find programs and ways to do that is important,” Puffer said.
Outside of the demand for housing, SARA For Women also has a need for donations of formula and diapers.