With the percentage of renters increasing in Ontario and across Canada, the affordable housing crisis is becoming truly untenable — especially for our country’s most vulnerable populations. Renters in Ontario now make up over 30% of the total population, and here in Toronto, we’ve now become the second most expensive city in Canada for rentals and the most expensive for buying a home, according to recent statistics from the Canadian Real Estate Association. Housing is increasingly becoming more and more unaffordable — with a median income in Toronto of just over $35,000 a year, housing costs are terribly out of sync with incomes. Too many people are having to make impossible decisions about whether they’ll pay for their groceries, their essential medications, or their rent each month.

“I think it’s all intertwined: inflation, housing […] and then COVID came and a lot of people ended up unemployed, especially in the manual labour market,” explains Jiin Yiong, Nellie’s program director. “And so it drove the working class into poverty even more, and then the inflation came. I think for a lot of immigrant families especially, you now have to keep two to three jobs to maintain a roof over your head and food on the table.”

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the current housing crisis, Nellie’s is continuing to see an increase in clients who need housing support. Our Transitional Housing Support Program helps women who have left situations of violence, poverty, and homelessness access safe and affordable housing. Through this program, Nellie’s assists women with the application process for subsidized housing, as well as with safety planning, crisis support, and advocacy.

In addition to working with women to secure housing, our staff also connects them to community resources in their area so that they will have the support and tools they need to establish themselves once they move into their new homes. We also assist clients with finding furniture and other household items that help make a house feel like a home.

As part of Nellie’s continued efforts to collaborate with community and strategic partners, our greater goal is not only to improve our crisis response, but to also further work on eviction prevention. Currently our staff is working to increase our outreach by visiting more community drop-in centres to lead workshops on housing-related topics, including tenant rights, budgeting, and more.

“Providing accurate information is crucial for eviction prevention,” says Jiin. Misinformation is easily spread, especially in vulnerable housing communities. Jiin gives an example of a client she recently worked with who was told by her landlord that she needs to leave because she’s living in a bachelor apartment with her two children. But legally, a landlord must apply for and receive an eviction order from the Landlord and Tenant Board in order to begin the process of eviction — they can’t just give you verbal or written instructions to force you to leave. Unfortunately, many landlords use intimidation as a tactic, and women in vulnerable situations, especially new immigrants, will often just do what they’re told for fear of greater repercussions.

“We want to provide the support for our clients who require immediate support, but instead of just responding to the immediacy of it, there’s got to be some things we can do to prevent it,” says Jiin. “I think prevention is the most important, because then you don’t send people into crisis.”

Olivia never lived at Nellie’s shelter. She never spent a night in one of our beds, cooked dinner in our kitchen or found a few hours to herself while her daughter joined the Children’s Program. But Olivia is no stranger to Nellie’s.

Almost six years ago, Olivia and her then 12-year-old daughter, Grace, found themselves facing eviction. Despite working as many hours as her part-time job would give her, she still found herself unable to pay their rent. With help from our Transitional Housing Program, an application for appeal was successfully filed, allowing Olivia and Grace to stay in their home. But stability didn’t last and a few years later, Olivia, now pregnant, and Grace found themselves without a home. With no other family to turn to, they settled at a nearby family shelter.

“I felt like I hit rock bottom,” says Olivia. “After I lost my house, I was on my own and I didn’t know what to do and who to turn to for help until I met Diana (Galeano) at Nellie’s (Transitional Housing Support Program).”

Nellie’s Transitional Housing Program helps homeless women find a place to live and offers eviction support to help women stay in their homes. This support can take many forms, including providing guidance on accessing emergency funding to pay rent, advocating on their behalf on landlord-tenant issues, accompanying them to housing tribunal hearings or offering referrals to legal clinics.

For Olivia and Grace, the first, and most important, step was to find them a new home.

“When a woman shows up, our goal is to find them housing either in the primary market or the subsidized market,” says Diana, a Transitional Support Worker at Nellie’s. “Every single client we work with is different. We work with each one of them, as individuals with unique needs. My goal for my clients is to search for the services and programs around them and guide them to success. Everyone’s goal is different and I help them achieve their goals.”

Six months after Olivia and Grace arrived at the family shelter, with Diana’s help they moved into their own subsidized housing unit. But support didn’t end there. When her second daughter, Danielle, was born, Diana also helped Olivia fight for child support payments for both girls. She has also fought for Olivia when her rent was raised above her means and has helped her create a wish list for the Gifts-in-Kind Holiday Program, a partnership where employees at a number of companies sponsor individual families and purchase wish list items for them.

“I’ve been fighting for myself and to support myself for so many years,” says Olivia, as Danielle, now 3, plays with a new colouring toy from a generous Nellie’s donor. Olivia explains that she arrived in Canada from Guyana as a child with her mother and older brother. But her mother passed away when she was in middle school and her brother was left to care for her, leaving her to mostly care for herself.

“Until now, everybody in my life just passed through for a few weeks or months and then it would all collapse again. But Diana and Nellie’s have been there for me for such a long time and no matter how hard it is for me, Nellie’s always shows me the way. Nellie’s is always showing me that when the first option doesn’t work out, there’s a second and third and fourth option to try,” she says.

“Now I have a ground to stand on and a solid foundation. And I am so grateful. Nellie’s has done so much for my family and I just can’t say thank you enough.”

When Krystal Joseph first arrived in Toronto, she was five months pregnant and had her two-year-old daughter, Joshae, in tow. She stepped off a plane at Pearson airport from her home in Antigua with just $700 to her name and dreams of a better life for her and her kids. It was a friend who had convinced her to come to Canada by also promising her a place to stay.

That promise of a home didn’t last.

Kicked out on the street after just one month and with nowhere to go, Krystal quickly found her way to Nellie’s where staff immediately took her and her daughter in.

“I was so scared that first night. I had no one else here in Canada but the staff at Nellie’s took us in like if we were family,” says Krystal. “When we arrived at Nellie’s, we had nothing but they took care of us — asked me what we needed and gave us things like lotions and things for Joshae. It really gave me hope.”

Krystal and Joshae immediately settled into a routine. “I think Joshae was happy that we were in a place with other people and children. They had toys and she saw that there was a community. It was her home. In my mind I knew what Nellie’s is and where we were, but in her mind, it was like Disneyland. As her mother, it made me feel better to see that she felt safe.”

Joshae visited the Children’s Program in the house every Wednesday and Friday evening (“She made me the most wonderful art presents every week,” says Krystal), while Krystal immersed herself in Nellie’s in some of many group programs.

In one program she learned how to cook on a budget; in another she developed a better understanding of how to manage her finances; and in yet another she came to understand the emotional abuse she had endured at the hands of the so-called friend that brought her to Canada.

“They did a wonderful job in terms of getting us on our feet while also having fun at the same time. The staff at Nellie’s made me feel special and safe. They gave me hope,” she says.

A few months into her stay at Nellie’s, her daughter, Journeiy, was born. Her birth only strengthened Krystal’s passion to give her two daughters a better life. She passed her high school equivalency exam, started college, volunteered often and found a job as a Geriatric Support Worker. Her greatest challenge was finding a home. A Nellie’s Housing Support Worker was always by her side as she filled out housing applications.

“I knew I could do it because people were rooting for me and pushing me and reassuring me that I was going to be okay. I never had anything like that in my life before.”

In September 2018, Krystal, Joshae and Journeiy moved into their own home. Nellie’s staff referred her to other community agencies so that she could furnish it. The kids love it, she says. “They’re throwing toys all over the house and driving me crazy! It’s perfect.”

And she is forever grateful for the care and support they all got while living at Nellie’s.

“I’m never ashamed to say I lived in a shelter. Nellie’s wasn’t a shelter for me, it was so much more than that—it was my home and the people there were my family.”

On Monday, Oct. 10, 2016, Thanksgiving brunch was held for the residents at
Nellie’s. We had an array of breakfast and pasty items for the women and
children to feast on, accommodating some cultural food requests.

The event was a great success as we received a lot of positive feedback about
how nice the women felt to be celebrated. It was nice to have all of the
families gathered in one central place, thankful for one another.

There was something for everyone. We served halal meat options, different
egg variations and we were also fortunate to have ackee and saltfish
available which was a big hit.

We are just over halfway through the 12 weeks of the Women Experiencing Abuse and Violence Group. Each week we have participants meet to raise awareness about violence against women and build a network of support. Over the last five weeks, we have covered the following topics: cycle of violence, methods of power and control, safety planning, and setting boundaries.

The cycle of abuse looked at the pattern of abuse that is common among most women who have experienced abuse. The stages include the following: the honeymoon phase, the tension phase and the explosion phase. The cycle of abuse repeats itself, often with the Honeymoon phase becoming shorter and the explosion phase happening more frequently the longer the abuse happens.

The group created their own power and control wheel to explore the methods of power and control. The methods of power and control included: using emotional abuse, using social isolation, using male privilege, using intimidation, using coercion and threats, minimizing, denying and blaming, physical abuse and using economic abuse. Women spoke about how the methods of power and control differed based on their social location. For example, one participant who was sponsored by her abuser spoke about how he threatened her immigration status. Each women spoke about how male privilege impacted their lives across diverse backgrounds, especially in the different court systems and how it acted as a barrier in creating safety and was often re-traumatizing.

During safety planning, participants created an emergency escape plan, created a safety plan for living in a new neighborhood and an emotional safety plan. Some participants spoke about the difficulty in safety planning when facing many barriers and extreme isolation. The participants in the group are from diverse cultural backgrounds and diverse parts of the world. One participant stated she learned “how to protect my safety and remove myself from an emergency situation.”

Last week, we discussed setting boundaries. Women drew what their boundaries looked like and most participants spoke about their challenges setting boundaries. Most participants reported that they had trouble or felt bad about saying no, stayed is situations that made themselves feel uncomfortable and constantly felt the need to please people. Women linked this difficulty of saying no to societal pressures placed on them as women. The participants in the group stated the following positive affirmations:

1. I have the right to be who I am and stand up for myself.
2. I deserve to be treated with respect and dignity.
3. I have the right to take care of myself and to put myself first.
4. I accept my right to be imperfect and to do so without feeling guilty.
5. No one has the authority to tell me what to feel, what to think or what to do.

During the group, one participant stated “All my life I have been kept in darkness, nor knowledge or discussion related to my well-being. I have learned so much. I learned about my rights. I deserve a life without abuse.”

Many of the women in the community at Nellie’s receive food from the Tuesday afternoon drop-off which is kindly donated by the Good people at Second Harvest, or collected at fundraising events.  However, with the introduction of foods such as collard greens, leeks, rhubarb, kale and quinoa which are not native to their home countries or cultures, we have started a class on Thursday mornings where the women learn how to experiment and cook with these new products.

We started with requests for how to make Kraft Dinner and expanded to everything from tortillas and quesadillas, to dumplings, soups, salads, strawberry rhubarb pie and apple crisp!

Since foodstuffs are collected from all around Toronto, there is no telling what will arrive next, but in keeping with the spirit of adventure and discovery, we intend to continue these classes as more foodstuffs arrive on our doorstep!

Cooking healthy meals on a budget may not be easy, but with a little imagination, it can be a lot of fun!