What it’s like for women and children living at Nellie’s during COVID-19?

Social and physical distancing practices are keeping us all apart like never before. And this has meant some changes for the women and their children currently living in our shelter as we adjust to the reality of COVID-19.

On any given day in our shelter, every bed is full. But our space is too small for our needs—after all, it was designed for 16 beds, not 40, meaning the women and their children living here have little space or privacy. They share nine bedrooms and three bathrooms. This means we’re trying to best manage our space restrictions as we make the health and wellbeing of everyone in our shelter—women, children and our staff—our most important priority.

Like many other essential programs and services around the city, we have stepped up cleaning and disinfection measures in our shelter. We have also made hand sanitizer readily available for everyone. Residents are asked to stay six feet away from each other and staff at all times and are also being asked to stay inside as much as possible. Masks are available for those who want them.

But without being able to go out, the women in our shelter are living in even closer quarters, each while dealing with their own traumas.

“Most of the women here understand why we’re making new rules but when you put so many different personalities in one spot, and each under even more stress than usual, it’s hard. Tensions are high, anxiety is at its highest and when people are cooped up, they have trouble coping with that,” says Maureen Caines-Comrie, Interim Shelter Manager. “Maybe part of how someone processed their trauma before was to go out and visit with a therapist or councillor regularly while living at the shelter. Now they can’t do that anymore and it makes their situation even more difficult for them.”

To encourage the women and children living at Nellie’s to stay inside as much as possible, we introduced additional daily prepared meals as well as regular snacks to our schedule. Previously, only dinner was provided to residents, leaving each person to shop for and use the kitchen to prepare their remaining meals for the day.

And since schools and daycares are closed, we now open our children’s playroom every day except Sundays (previously it was only open on Wednesday and Friday evenings). We provide daily snacks for every child, have set up a school section to help the older ones with the online learning curriculum and engage the younger ones from a safe social distance.

“We’re trying to do social distancing with the children, but they often don’t understand so we have to keep reminding them. And it’s so hard because the babies living in our shelter just want to snuggle in your lap and we have to turn them away,” says Maureen.

Social distancing measures are also in place throughout the house, says Maureen. Many residents are choosing to stay in their rooms as much as possible rather than spending time in common areas, anyone who wants to speak with staff in the office now need to stand behind a line marked on the floor and no more than two women are allowed in the kitchen at a time. And, house meetings are more frequent to keep everyone up-to-date on changing rules.

“You have to keep on communicating; you cannot be silent at a time like this. Because when that happens, people start forming their own opinions and that’s a big part of what leads to disagreements and misunderstandings. We want to keep everyone up-to-date, calm and as happy as possible,” says Maureen.

Thank you for all of the community support and donations that have been received during this unprecedented and challenging time. Your generosity during these past few weeks has been vital in ensuring that we can sustain our efforts and continue to help those most in need.

But we continue to need your help now more than ever.

“After all this is finished, we’re going to be over budget,” says Maureen, explaining that the food costs alone for the added daily meal and snacks add up quickly.

To make a secure online donation, please visit our donation page. Or, you can make an even bigger impact by becoming a monthly donor. As a regular monthly supporter, your generosity provides critical and consistent funding towards our daily efforts to help women and their children impacted by abuse, trauma and homelessness. Automatic monthly payments are easy to set up, convenient, and create a lasting impact on the lives of women and their children at Nellie’s.