Abusers are weaponizing B.C.’s housing affordability crisis, say domestic violence survivors who were interviewed by a Vancouver non-profit.
Rise Women’s Legal Centre conducted interviews with more than 40 victims of intimate partner violence and, in a new report, it recommends legal reforms to ensure protection orders can be accessed more quickly, and an expansion of legal aid services so victims can exit relationships and find safer housing.
Rise staff lawyer Haley Hrymak spoke to the victims, along with dozens of others who are involved in the legal system and domestic violence charities, and authored the report.
B.C.’s housing crisis, she says, often leads to people to stay in abusive relationships, or return to them, because they can’t find affordable alternate housing.
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“Abusers are using the housing crisis, including, you know, the lack of available alternatives for people, as a way of perpetrating their violence,” she said.
“So people are experiencing threats like, ‘If you were to leave me, you’d have nowhere to go.'”
The report revealed how B.C.’s family law system often doesn’t consider safe housing when deciding on protection orders or applications for custody, Hyrmak said.
It recommends, among other things, that B.C.’s Family Law Act be amended to require courts to consider gender-related factors in relocation applications — including housing affordability and family violence.
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“There should also be flexibility within the notice requirements to keep the address confidential, or to provide an address closer to the date of the proposed relocation,” the report reads.
In addition, the report recommends an expansion of legal aid services to help domestic violence survivors file applications to obtain family property.
It also asks for more communication within the family law system itself to allow for faster protection orders and child support — something also recommended in an independent review commissioned by the province and authored by Dr. Kim Stanton earlier this year.
“You can’t wait six months to have a family court child support order be enforced. You really needed that money five months ago when your rent was due,” Hrymak said.
Erin Seeley, the CEO of YWCA Metro Vancouver, says the organization has more than 1,000 women and families on its waitlist for transitional and long-term housing units.
“No matter how many units we build, our waitlist is not going down,” she said.
“And, in part, that’s because we hear from women who, when they’re offered … transitional housing, it can be a shorter term stay up to 18 months,” Seeley added. “They don’t want to take a short-term stay because they don’t want to risk that.”
Seeley said she’s encouraged to see the call for more legal aid funding — but adds that those working in the family law system need to be trauma-informed and sensitive to the needs of intimate partner violence victims.
“One of the discouraging things is, we didn’t see in the federal budget, we didn’t see anything for women in housing,” Seeley said.
“We did see some funding from women’s advancement and gender equality that we’re hopeful will continue to flow to provinces. But we need more provincial investment in addressing gender-based violence.”
A spokesperson for the B.C. Attorney General said that the province is investing over $1 billion in women’s transitional housing over a decade.
They added that, following Stanton’s report, the government is conducting a comprehensive review of the Family Law Act.
Proposed changes to the act may include expanding eligibility for protection orders and reducing barriers for those seeking consecutive orders, the spokesperson said.
“In the coming weeks, government will share an update on the Province’s progress responding to the recommendations in the report, including next steps to promote [co-ordination] and collaboration between the actors within the legal system,” they added.
