Manitoba first to scrap housing benefit ‘income test’ for victims of violence By: Carol Sanders Posted: 6:47 PM CDT Tuesday, Mar. 26, 2024 Last Modified: 9:29 PM CDT Tuesday, Mar. 26, 2024 Updates

For survivors of gender-based violence, finding a safe place to call home at little notice is a difficult task.

The provincial and federal governments announced Tuesday they’ve earmarked a combined $27.5 million to help them out.

“We truly believe this announcement has the potential to save lives,” Lorie English, executive director of the West End Women’s Resource Centre, said at a news conference with federal and provincial cabinet ministers.

The two levels of government will equally split the cost of an enhancement to the Canada housing benefit over five years. The aim is to provide the shelter benefit right away to people fleeing domestic violence, without requiring “means testing” for a year.

“I’m very pleased that Manitoba is the first province in Canada to co-develop a program that does not require income testing in the first year of the benefit,” Housing Minister Bernadette Smith said at the legislative building.

“This recognizes that individuals exiting violence may be experiencing financial abuse or face barriers to accessing other types of benefits because of complex financial issues or situations,” Smith said. “This prioritizing of the needs of survivors will be the first of its kind implemented in Canada.”

The minister said it’s expected as many as 2,600 households could be helped over the five-year period.

Providing the benefit for a year without requiring an income test will allow people to get out of shelters and into homes quickly, said English.

The resource centre has helped many people escape from violent situations.

“Imagine needing to flee your home in fear with nothing but the clothes on your back and whatever you can think to grab on your way out the door,” she said. “You know you can’t go home and you can’t stay in a shelter forever.”

Currently, it can take months to get shelter benefits if a person doesn’t have access to a bank account, income statements and other documents required for income testing, English said.

“This is the reality of many of the people we work with,” she explained.

“Removing this barrier means we can move straight away to getting them access to the income sources they need to be sustainably housed. It can happen literally in a matter of days. It is a significant difference.”

She said there are a number of barriers when a person leaves a violent situation — mainly a lack of safe, stable and affordable housing. “Often people return to violence because of the fear of being homeless. The lack of public and non- profit social housing options force people into the private market, which is often unaffordable.”

The Canada housing benefit is available now for those fleeing gender-based violence in Manitoba through referrals from 10 non-profit agencies, including the West End Women’s Resource Centre, Smith said.

The benefit ranges from $350 a month for a studio apartment to $805 a month for a place with three or more bedrooms, the minister said.

“Every Canadian should have access to housing that meets their needs and that they can afford,” said Manitoba’s senior federal cabinet minister Dan Vandal, MP for Saint Boniface-Saint Vital.

“The reality is that far too many are struggling to find a place to call home,” he said.

While the Canada housing benefit funding is specifically for survivors of gender-based violence, provinces and territories have the flexibility to use their cost-matching to support ending gender-based violence “or other priorities and programs to assist this vulnerable population with direct-to-household affordability assistance,” a joint federal-provincial news release said.

“Manitoba faces some of the highest levels of gender-based violence across Canada,” said Nahanni Fontaine, Manitoba’s minister responsible for women and gender equity.

Manitoba had the second-highest rate of intimate partner violence in 2022, as per data from Statistics Canada.

On Monday, the federal government announced 17 organizations in Manitoba and Saskatchewan would share $7.4 million to combat gender-based violence.

Fontaine said some refer to Manitoba as “ground zero” for missing and slain Indigenous women and girls.

“It will take all of us to dismantle the oppressive structures of patriarchy and misogyny and create a province safe for women, girls and gender-diverse folks,” she said.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca