Quebec women's shelters are asking the government to speed up the construction of more places

The Athena Shield expansion project in Montreal is a response to the large number of calls from women in need across the province.

“There was a lot of demand for emergency shelters. We had to expand,” said Melpa Kamateros, executive director of the Shield of Athens (SOAFS).

Over the years, women's shelters like the Shield of Athena have been under a lot of pressure, but lately it's been really tough.

“In the last 12 months we have received more than 53,000 calls,” said Claudine Thibodeau, social worker at SOS Violence Conjugale. “That's double the number of calls we were getting a few years ago.”

The problem is that shelters don't have enough space, which means some women have to call again when they try to escape violence.

“What's really difficult for us is that when people apply for housing, we're only able to find affordable housing in about half of the cases,” Thibodeau said.

The opposition Quebec Solaire party is calling on the CAQ government to speed up the construction of women's shelters.

“There are existing projects of shelters that are ready for construction, but unfortunately it is blocked or it is not moving very fast,” said QS MNA Ruba Ghazal.

According to Ghazal, Quebec has the power to implement this if the government decree is passed.

“It's been done before, it can take 18 months,” Ghazal said. “Even sometimes 13-14 months, so if the government wants to build them quickly. It's possible.”

For years, Athena Shield has been trying to find a second home for women fleeing violence to help them transition to a better life.

“A project that was supposed to take a year has now taken almost four years, the actual construction part,” Kamateros said.

While the facility is nearing completion, it can't come soon enough.

“For the past two years, we've been getting calls about the second step continuously, and we keep telling them it hasn't been built yet,” Kamateros added.

Quebec said in a statement that it had held several meetings with shelters to find a solution, and that the government had agreed with certain organizations to include one or more shelters in the project.

“Quebec will ensure that all projects are built as soon as possible,” it said.

“There should also be a factor of flexibility and speed,” Kamateros said. “It has to be fast. It should respond to urgent needs.”