Intimate partner violence epidemic in Sarnia-Lambton: council

Intimate partner violence in Sarnia-Lambton is an epidemic, and the provincial government needs to act, county council agreed Wednesday.

Key in addressing the problem is transitional housing, said Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley.

“People need to understand how desperate the need for transitional housing is for women leaving the home” to escape a violent partner, he said.

Women fleeing violence and abuse often deal with trauma, financial arrears and lack good housing references or credit ratings, said Jennifer Vansteenkiste, executive director of Sarnia’s Women’s Interval Home.

Transitional housing — space for up to a year with community supports to address those difficulties — can help women escaping intimate partner violence, often with their children, from becoming homeless, she said.

With just three Lambton transitional housing units — a consultant for the interval home found 15 to 18 are needed — women and their children fleeing violence, after six weeks in shelter, might end up couch surfing, and eventually homeless, or be forced to return to the abusive environment, Vansteenkiste said.

“There’s just no other choice.”

Council has signaled shelter and affordable housing are its top priorities.

“It’s important to note that domestic violence is a pathway to homelessness,” Vansteenkiste said.

“So if they would like to be preventive and proactive, then helping women. . . experiencing domestic violence is one of the key answers.”

Seven femicide — women killed by intimate partners, relatives or acquaintances — have happened in Sarnia-Lambton since 2020, she said.

Provincially, there were 52 in 2022, and 38 since.

Meanwhile, demands on the Women’s Interval Home and other agencies in the Co-ordinating Committee on Violence Against Women have gone up, Vansteenkiste said, noting the number of clients receiving counseling at the home was up 63 per cent in 2022, compared to 2020.

“Declaring intimate partner violence an epidemic is the first step to focusing the public’s attention on the problem,” she said.

Along with unanimous county council approval for that declaration — following in the footsteps of about 40 other municipalities to date — council also called on the province to make a similar declaration, adequately fund the Women’s Interval Home, Sexual Assault Survivors’ Center and Victim Services, and approved looking at gender as a pillar in the county’s Community Safety and Well-Being Plan.

Other plan pillars are mental health and addictions, poverty, community safety, systemic racism, and housing and homelessness.

Vansteenkiste thanked council for the decision.

“It’s extremely important the public knows this is happening,” she said, noting intimate partner violence and femicide also disproportionately affect Indigenous, Black and racialized people.

The interval home, meanwhile, has been trying to secure money for more transitional housing, she said, noting the home recently applied for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. funding to renovate a Sarnia building to provide 23 units and rental offices for local agencies.

The application failed because there was no local funding, she said.

The interval home is still trying to make the project happen, she said, adding hopes are for $12 million to $15 million to get it off the ground.

Plans are to make further applications for funding from a public health approach, she said, “because intimate partner violence is a public health issue.”

They’re also hoping for financial help from the city and county, she said.

“We’re always looking for a champion to help us financially,” she said. “We’re hoping to be able to present a solid plan in the near future, but it’s going to take a bit of time.”

No site has been set for the project, she said.

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