Fifty years ago, a group of women activists realized that in the city of Toronto there were only 40 beds available for homeless women and over 400 beds for homeless men. Moved to action by this inequality, Nellie’s was founded in 1973 — and it was named after pioneer feminist, Nellie McClung (who was one of five women who challenged the Canadian government in the Supreme Court of Canada to have women declared persons under the law). Here are some of our biggest milestones over the last fifty years:
1973: Nellie’s opens its doors with a 16-bed shelter on Broadview Ave. While initially established for young homeless women dealing with teenage pregnancy, suicide, self-harm, crime, prostitution, ill-health and abuse, staff began to notice that most of the women accessing Nellie’s were middle-aged and older women fleeing domestic violence.
1978: Nellie’s purchases the beautiful historic residential building that became home for more than four decades. Over the years, in response to the overwhelming need, Nellie’s increased its occupancy rate to 36 beds and made the main focus of the organization disrupting violence against women and their children.
2002: Nellie’s opens its Community Support and Outreach office on Queen St. E. Here we provided programming, transitional housing support, a food bank, and more to women and their children who had moved out of the shelter and those who lived in our community at risk of homelessness.
2017: Thanks to a generous grant from La Fondation Emmanuelle Gattuso, Nellie’s launches a children’s program to address the wide range of issues facing children living at the shelter, while also providing them with a safe space to play, explore, and laugh. Two years later, an additional grant allowed Nellie’s to expand the program to also focus on supporting teens living in our shelter.
2019: Nellie’s secures a substantial government investment for the purchase of a new shelter building and begins raising capital to complete the necessary renovations.
2022: Nellie’s moves to the stunning three-storey Victorian building we now call home. Our new shelter has capacity for up to 38 beds across 22 bedrooms (an increase from 36 beds across 9 rooms in the old building), giving family units some privacy, and ample space to provide supportive programs and services. The move closed the Community Support and Outreach office on Queen St., and in 2023 we opened a new office on Cosburn Ave. in East York to offer these services.
2023: Nellie’s gains ground with empowerment self-defense work at the 2023 NGO CSW67 Forum in New York City, an event that runs in parallel to the UN Commission on the Status of Women.
