Women’s shelters facing ‘unprecedented’ staffing challenges

“We’re a 24-7 essential services type of facility, we need to be here. Our community needs it,” she says. “Domestic violence calls are on the rise we know there’s a high need for our services and we’re constantly busy so it’s not like we have a choice to shut doors or do things like that. And so I think that sometimes it would be great to not have to do a song and dance to have to raise money for those things.”

The report, Survivors Deserve Better. Shelters Deserve Better. Alberta Deserves Better, says the average wage of domestic violence shelter staff is 15 per cent lower than the wage of the average Albertan and 33 per cent lower than comparable government wages.

According to the report, a cost-of-living adjustment from 2015 funding levels would cost the provincial government about $10.3 million.

The stagnant funding has had a negative impact on shelters and staff and contributed to a 45 per cent turnover rate in 2021-22 at domestic violence shelters in the province.

Carvalho says her staff are taking on other jobs to make ends meet, which can lead to burnout and more turnover.

“What we find is that a lot of our part-time staff and even some of our frontline full-time staff have taken on part-time jobs in other places to try to sort of bridge that gap,” she explains, adding she and the board of directors want the staff to flourish and offer “soft supports” when possible.

But that’s often not enough, Carvalho says.

“Money’s what’s going to make the world go round at the end of the day. They need money; they need to pay their rent and their mortgages and their bills and they have kids and all those kinds of rising costs so it is hard to retain staff.”

On top of the staffing challenges, shelters “being asked to pay 2023 prices with 2015 dollars” as ACWS executive director Jan Reimer puts it, operational costs are also squeezing budgets. Carvalho points to utilities and food prices as two additional costs, but notes partnerships with the Root Cellar Food & Wellness Hub and grocery stores help.

She says as prices go up the gap widens in terms of how much fundraising is needed. The shelter hasn’t been able to hold its major fundraiser, the Bread & Roses Gala, since before COVID. It returns next month.

They need to pay their rent and their mortgages and their bills and they have kids and all those kinds of rising costs so it is hard to retain staff. _{-Natasha Carvalho}

Carvalho says they haven’t had to cut staff or programs over funding constraints but sometimes haven’t been able to do as much as they’d like to help clients.

She says extra staff to support clients going to appointments or court would be beneficial. Without being able to increase numbers, more has been asked of current staff, something Carvalho says can’t go on forever.

Some findings in the report

Between April 1, 2021 and March 31, 2022, ACWS members sheltered 7,620 abuse survivors and their children.
Shelter and life-changing programming was provided for over 3,000 children.
Over 33 per cent of domestic violence shelter staff report that they work an additional job.
92 per cent of those who work an additional job report that they do so to supplement their income.
94 per cent of staff who are thinking about leaving their job report that it is because of insufficient pay.
The cost of living has increased by more than 20 per cent since 2014.
In 2021-22 alone, the cost of living in Alberta rose by 6.5 per cent and current projections indicate that the cost of living will increase by a further 5.2 per cent in 2023 and 4.3 per cent in 2024.

by Chris Brown

Women’s shelters facing ‘unprecedented’ staffing challenges

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