Province announces long-awaited funding for second-stage shelters

A few weeks ahead of the budget being released, Saskatchewan’s justice minister announced on Wednesday that operational funding for second-stage shelters will be forthcoming.

The province provides funding for initial, emergency shelters — $25 million in the current year, according to Minister Bronwyn Eyre — and it has provided capital funding for some second-stage projects like the YWCA’s new facility in Regina.

But it hasn’t provided money to pay for the operation of second-stage shelters, until the upcoming budget.

“We’ve looked at this for a number of months to really get a sense of what services are currently in place and where the best wrap-arounds would be around what we currently have in the province,” said Eyre.

The minister said there are a number of organizations and facilities right now working in this space which have services ready to be offered, and those will be taken into account.

“If we can optimize the services we already have and build on them in terms of wrap-around, I think it can provide a lot of stability, I think it can provide certainty and it can provide safety for those fleeing interpersonal violence. And I think it’s important, beyond the emergency stage, to get a sense of next steps,” said Eyre.

A second-stage shelter usually comes into play in the 18- to 24-month range and can help a woman and children get back on their feet and through the next steps of their journey fleeing interpersonal violence.

Shelters and organizations have been calling for more help from the province for years.

Just over one year ago, an affordable housing developer in Regina came to the Legislature to voice her frustration with what she saw as a lack of work from the provincial government in that space.

Her company had just opened a second-stage shelter with involvement from the City of Regina and federal government, but none from the province.

Eyre said the province has been looking at this move for a number of months but she said the government wanted to establish whether first-phase housing, which it has been putting millions into, could help with those transition services.

“I think it’s become clearer that second-stage is an important next step to protecting women, to protecting those fleeing interpersonal violence, and so we’ve looked at very seriously what facilities and operators are out there who can offer it, how they can offer it and how we can best invest in it,” said Eyre.

The amount that will go to help shelters will come out in the budget, but Eyre did say it’s a commitment of money going forward.

Nicole Sarauer, the Saskatchewan NDP’s justice critic, said the party is really happy with this news.

“This is something that we, along with those who provide this service, have been calling for from this government for years. It’s taken a while but this is a really positive step forward,” said Sarauer.

She estimated the NDP itself has been pushing for this for about six years.

“What I’ve been hearing from stakeholders is, ‘We need money for these operations. We have been spending way too much time having to fundraise and pull from all different areas to try and get these operational programs working,’ ” Sarauer explained.

Sarauer and the opposition will be watching to make sure the money is indeed multi-year, and that the province does “meaningful consultation” with the organizations on where the money goes.