My first three months as Executive Director of Nellie’s have been challenging. My first day was on a Thursday and five days later, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic.

We quickly implemented changes and new safety protocols in the shelter, suspended most of our community programs (our transitional housing workers continue to provide virtual and/or telephone support to the women in our community) and developed our new normal.

But a month later, one of the women living at Nellie’s tested positive for the virus. She was quickly moved to one of the city’s quarantine centres, but by then, several others started showing symptoms. Everyone living and working at Nellie’s was then tested for COVID-19. In total 11 residents tested positive and moved to a city quarantine centre. All of our front-line staff tested negative. All remaining residents moved to a nearby hotel while the shelter was thoroughly cleaned and disinfected, and furniture was reconfigured to allow for greater social distancing.

For several weeks, our staff continued to create positive spaces for the women and their children living in the hotel through our programs and workshops that offer therapeutic healing, personal growth and distraction during this challenging and stressful time. On June 10th, nine women and five children moved back into the shelter, while another seven women continue to live at the hotel. A pandemic specialist determined that it wasn’t safe for all the women to return—there simply isn’t enough space in our building to safely practice physical distancing. And so, we will continue to operate and provide services in both locations for the foreseeable future.

So for the time being, we cannot bring our total number of residents back up to pre-pandemic levels. With just 9 bedrooms and 5 washrooms, the shelter simply isn’t large enough to safely house 40 people.

In the coming weeks, we plan to resume our community food program, our W.E.A.V. program (Women Experiencing Abuse and Violence), as well as some of our other community programs. They will look different than before as we strictly follow Toronto Public Health protocols, but they’re a key part of how we help women and their children take the important steps towards accomplishing the next chapter of their lives. As we look to the future, we will be reassessing and rethinking how we deliver all of our programs not just to ensure everyone’s health and safety but to make sure they are inclusive for all. At Nellie’s, we operate within an anti-racism and anti-oppression framework but we always have more to learn and we can always find ways to do better

This pandemic is not going away anytime soon and our long-term focus continues to be on our move to our new shelter. I credit former Executive Director Margarita Mendez and our board of directors, under the leadership of Sherece Taffe and Donna Kellway, with their vision of finding a new space that offered greater accessibility and greater privacy for residents. This same vision now means we’ll have a shelter with an increased ability to implement health and safety measures—measures that will keep everyone at Nellie’s safe during the pandemic and safe during any future outbreaks or health concerns.

As an agency, we continue to have increased and unexpected COVID-19-related operational costs and we are forever grateful of the generosity of those in our community who have helped ensure we can sustain our efforts. But we are now shifting our fundraising focus to the capital costs we need to complete the renovations of the new shelter in anticipation of a 2021 move.

We continue to need your help now more than ever.

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.

We wish everyone in our community a continued abundance of health. Stay safe!

Jyoti Singh
Executive Director