"If all of the stars align," Cambridge will have a temporary women's shelter by September.
That's according to YWCA Cambridge CEO Kim Decker, who is hopeful the long-needed shelter space becomes a reality now that the region's Plan to End Chronic Homelessness won approval from council last week.
The multi-pronged strategy to tackle the crisis has a goal of zero homelessness in Waterloo region by 2030.
It includes shorter-term efforts like the $1.4 million in this year's budget to help YWCA Cambridge get a new 20-bed 24/7 emergency women's shelter up and running somewhere in the city.
The money will fund six full-time shelter staff, various part-time staff, an addictions counsellor, a manager and other supports.
"We are currently, actively searching for a temporary site for the shelter at the same time we are looking for a permanent one," Decker said.
"If all of the stars align, we would hope that we would open the temporary site in September of this year."
"We are not prepared to go through another winter with women being unhoused."
Advocating for a women's shelter in Cambridge is something the YWCA and other organizations have grappled with for a long time because women's homelessness is considered a "very hidden" problem.
As of last fall, Waterloo region had 562 adult shelter beds but just 13.8 per cent are for women.
Women who are homeless don't often come forward for fear of violence, family situations involving children or feelings of shame.
It's one of the main findings of Project Willow, a study the YWCA Cambridge was part of in an effort to listen to and learn from women experiencing homelessness as a way to inform their approach and change the region's shelter system.
"We know through the research we did for Project Willow that about 74 per cent of the women experiencing homelessness in our community, experience gender-based violence on a weekly basis," Decker said. "And so they would rather forego basic needs and stay hidden so that they can stay safe."
Women's Crisis Services provides shelter beds in Cambridge for survivors of intimate partner violence.
The YWCA's goal to improve support for unhoused women had a false start earlier this year when members from Grace Bible Church came forward to offer a space for the temporary shelter.
"The zoning had been approved, the church elders approved it, renovations were going to start and the church chatted with their insurance company and they refused to insure it because of the risk," Decker said.
The YWCA offered its liability insurance instead, but the shelter was still considered too high a risk for the church to take it on.
So, the search continues for a temporary site.
But Decker remains hopeful.
The organization's new service model for Cambridge is based on research done by the Women's National Housing and Homelessness Network around best models and best practices.
That research made it clear smaller shelters scattered across the cities they served were having a greater impact, so the YWCA chose to follow that route in Cambridge, Decker said.
It will be 24/7 shelter model with services for addiction, healthcare and conflict resolution embedded into the program and operated in partnership with the Aids Committee of Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo and Area (ACCKWA).
"We would bring those services to the women and start to build trust and hopefully help to change some lives."
As the city's first women's shelter, it will be a prototype and not a pilot since it will continue at a permanent location, Decker said.
