The BC Government will be spending 734-million dollars over the next decade to build 15-hundred transition housing spaces.
In Port Alberni, where the sexual assault rate is twice the provincial average, the government will fund 20 new units of second stage housing in addition to the 12 transition house beds already in place for women and children fleeing domestic violence.
Mid Island / Pacific Rim MLA Scott Fraser says the investment in women’s services is long overdue, as many of the women need longer than the 30-day stay at emergency shelters in order to build new and safer lives.
The Alberni Community and Women’s Services Society will receive funding to build 20 second-stage housing units, which are longer-term housing that provides support beyond the 30-day emergency transition beds provided to women when they first flee an abusive partner.
Fraser said the funding is part of the government’s Women’s Transition Housing Fund, which will invest $734 million over 10 years to build 1,500 transition homes, second-stage housing and affordable housing for women and children fleeing violence.
ACAWS is one of 12 social agencies across the province sharing $90 million in government funding to create 280 units of housing for victims of domestic abuse.