Genesis House (GH) Board members, staff and volunteers and special guests took part in the 40th Annual General Meeting (AGM) Report at Winkler Arts and Culture Tuesday night.
With an increase from 1037 bednights for 64 women in 2021-22 to 1213 for 76 women in 2023-24, and from 0 bednights for men in 2021-22 to 35 for 1 man and 904 bednights for 60 children in 2021-22 to 1216 for 82 children in 2023-24, the need for support for victims of domestic violence is increasing.
A first-time announcement was made at the AGM will bring new support to survivors of sexual assault, according to Executive Director Ang Braun. In fact, she noted, if she didn't know better, one might think nobody in the Pembina Valley has experienced sexual assault.
She explained why many are going unreported.
"If you have experienced a sexual assault, what do you do? Where do you go? In the first place, there's an enormous amount of shame that comes with it, and so I think just that in itself is something that keeps people from reporting. But if you do want to report, it is complicated right now. You would end up going to the hospital, perhaps. And once you're there and you've sat there for a few hours, the doctor would see you and say, 'Well, I'm actually not a specialist in doing this type of examination. You need to see a specialist, which is in Winnipeg."
She said this often means the survivor is transported to Winnipeg in a police vehicle which can add to the stigma and shame. New supports will be available at Genesis House which would provide someone to take the sexual assault survivor to Winnipeg and help them navigate the system to reporting, which doesn't need to be done right away, according to Braun.
Land is owned for a 25-unit transitional housing build. Fundraising has officially begun for the $40 million place designed to allow women of a variety of background to have a safe place to make a way forward away from abuse and with the proper supports in place to live independently. Each case's timeline will be different for each person, but now Braun said the transitional space they currently have is an average of 9 months for some.
She said the vision goes beyond just a place to stay.
"But the other really important component is we're trying to build a community inside of this transitional housing build, which means there will be some programming connected to life skills, connected to self-esteem, connected to parenting. We take for granted a lot of the things we've had in our own lives, the experience of working beside Grandma, whether it's picking peas or washing dishes. All of the tasks, the things that we've done, we didn't realize were growing our capacity."
The AGM featured guest speaker Director of Policy Advocacy at West Central Womens Resource Centre Kirsten Bernas spoke to the challenges people face when trying to find housing of their own with affordable housing challenges at an all-time high.
"So, in 2021, we found there were 335 households in Winkler that were in what we call core housing needs. So, either living in unaffordable housing, poor quality housing, or housing that's not suitable for their household size. At that time, 11% of all renting households were spending more than 50% of their income on rent. So, that's way worse than the affordability threshold of that 30% of household income. So that's a significant number of households that are really in deep housing insecurity. And at that time too, we knew that about 20% of households in Winkler couldn't afford the average market rent, at that time. That was almost four or five years ago now, so, I would imagine as rent continue to rise and our social assistance rates aren't getting any higher, those numbers are either similar or worse I would say."
She explained a bit of the funding history in Canada for these types of projects.
"Our federal government, at the time, starting in the 60s, was recognizing the need for significant public investments in public housing and then in the 70s and 80s, nonprofit housing and coop housing. But really since the early 90s since 1993, our federal government has really pulled itself out of the game of funding this type of housing and we have relied on the private market ever since then. Never since then has the private market been able to meet the need for housing for the lowest income household."
With the ambitious fundraising goal ahead of the organization, guest speakers Don and Eileen Kroeker formerly of Winkler, owners of Kroeker Farms and founders of the Riverwood House, a recovery housing project in Winnipeg, had some advice for Genesis House on fundraising.
"I hope people don't feel that they're bothering anyone when they ask. I think that we have the right to ask people. They have a right to make their own decisions, but I think that people want to be challenged to help. They see all the problems of the world; they want to have some part in helping to make a better world. So, that's what we're going to give to them. When you ask, you're giving them a chance to make a better world."
Don added, "I think it's important that the people who ask others have strong personal commitments as well."
*with files from Jayme Giesbrecht.