2023 marks 50 years since we first opened our doors. It is an incredible milestone, and a reminder of the shelter and support we have given to thousands of women and their children fleeing violence, trauma and homelessness since 1973.

To mark our 50-year anniversary, we’re sharing 50 facts about Nellie’s. Read on to learn about our shelter, our community programs, and so much more.

1. Over 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 inequity, Nellie’s was founded in 1973.
2. Nellie’s was named after Nellie McClung, the pioneer feminist who challenged the Canadian government in the Supreme Court of Canada to have women declared persons under the law.
3. Opened in 1973, our first shelter had 16 beds and was located on Broadview Ave.
4. The shelter was initially established for young homeless women dealing with teenage pregnancy, suicide, self-harm, crime, prostitution, ill-health and abuse, but staff began to notice that most of the women accessing Nellie’s were middle-aged and older women fleeing domestic violence.
5. In 1978, Nellie’s purchased the beautiful historic residential building that became home for more than four decades.
6. 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.
7. In the early ’90s, current Toronto MPP Kristyn Wong-Tam worked at Nellie’s as an overnight relief worker.
8. In 2002, Nellie’s opened 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.
9. Thanks to a generous grant from La Fondation Emmanuelle Gattuso, in 2017 Nellie’s launched 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.
10. Two years later, an additional grant allowed Nellie’s to expand the program to also focus on supporting teens living in our shelter.
11. What started out as a simple craft-based program for little ones in the basement playroom of our old shelter has grown, and now our children’s program spans three bright, window-lined rooms in our new shelter, with spaces and programming suited for kids of all ages.
12. In 2019, Nellie’s secured a substantial government investment for the purchase of a new shelter building and began raising capital to complete the necessary renovations.
13. Before we could move into our new shelter, the building required a lot of renovations — including historic brick and window restoration, roof repair, plumbing upgrades, and fireproofing.
14. In 2022, Nellie’s moved into its current home, a stunning three-storey Victorian building in the east end of Toronto, which was originally built in 1901.
15. The new shelter is 21,800 sq. ft., compared to the old shelter’s 8,900 sq. ft. footprint.
16. 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 some privacy to each family unit.
17. Each bedroom has its own private bathroom — four of which are barrier-free.
18. More than just more bedrooms, the new shelter gives us more program space, more living space, more dining space, more play space for kids, more quiet space, and more space for our staff to work together on new and innovative approaches to trauma support and violence prevention.
19. When visitors walk into Nellie’s, one of the first things they’ll see is our “Hearts & Hands” mural hanging in our common room. Created in 2002 by residents and staff at Nellie’s, it represents the community and hope found within our walls.
20. The move to our new shelter led to us closing the Community Support and Outreach office on Queen St. In 2023 we opened a new office on Cosburn Ave. in East York to continue offering these services.
21. This past summer, Nellie’s invested in an e-bike for staff members to use while running errands or when commuting between our shelter and our community location on Cosburn. Eco-friendly, cost-effective, and FUN!
22. With pet-friendly bedrooms, a pet care room, and an outdoor play area, we’re thrilled that our new shelter is pet-friendly! We’re proud to be one of just a handful of shelters in Toronto to accept pets — because domestic violence victims shouldn’t have to choose between their own safety or the safety of their beloved animals.
23. In 2022/2023, 81 women stayed at Nellie’s, along with 61 children. During this time, one baby was also born at the shelter!
24. Over the same time period, 104 women received housing support from Nellie’s through our Transitional Housing Program. This program helps women who have situations of violence, poverty, and homelessness access safe and affordable housing.
25. In the last year, the average length of stay at Nellie’s was five months — about twice as long as the previous year due to the critical lack of affordable housing availability in Toronto.

Stay tuned for part 2, coming up next month!