The Peace River Regional Women’s Shelter temporarily closed their emergency shelter beds for renovation earlier this winter after discovering black mould in their facility. To help the shelter safely reopen the emergency beds and continue providing support services to women and children fleeing violence, the government is providing $400,000 to assist with the remediation costs.
Peace River Regional Women’s Shelter receives $1,262,490 annually from Alberta’s government to operate a 24-bed women’s emergency shelter and a three-unit second-stage shelter. The second-stage shelter units were unaffected by the black mould and remain open.
“Women’s shelters are crucial to ensuring the safety and well-being of women and children impacted by family violence. We worked closely with Peace River Regional Women’s Shelter to make sure they have the supports and funding they need to help survivors.”
At the time of the shelter’s closure, alternate accommodations were immediately found for families who needed to stay safe. Peace River Regional Women’s Shelter continues to provide crisis support and outreach services such as counselling, safety assessments and planning, as well as helping clients find safe alternate accommodations while they complete renovations. Emergency shelter beds will reopen at the end of March.
“Families escaping violence deserve to know there is a safe place for them to go and get the support they need. I am proud to advocate for the community and glad Alberta’s government is providing this funding for our women’s shelter.”
“During renovations black mould was discovered throughout our shelter. We immediately reached out to Minister Turton and he and the Children and Family Services staff were sincere in their desire to help us with this unique situation. We are greatly appreciative of the support we received from all levels of government and our community.”
Women’s emergency shelters provide short-term emergency accommodation, basic needs and connections to additional supports so that individuals and families fleeing domestic violence have a safe place to go. Alberta’s government invests more than $54 million in annual funding for women’s shelters, including annual funding to support operations for 31 women’s emergency shelters across the province and 17 second-stage shelters.
Related Information