WATCH ABOVE: A funding crunch caused a daytime women’s shelter to close its doors on Saturdays and Sundays. But the shelter recently got a bit of good news just in time for Valentine’s Day. Billy Shields has more.
MONTREAL – For disadvantaged women, Valentine’s Day can be a hard day. But dozens of women at Chez Doris, a daytime shelter, got good news in the form of annual funding.
Thanks to some timely funding, the women’s shelter is again throwing open its doors on weekends.
“They were refusing 75 or 76 persons a weekend,” said Monique Vallee, a city councillor.
“They were in need of essential services.”
The shelter announced in May that a funding crunch would cause it to close on weekends, a huge blow to its clientele, who often depend more on weekend services than those offered during the week. The demand is greater and the number of shelters open on the weekends are fewer.
“There aren’t many places you can hang out all day,” said Marina Boulos, the shelter’s interim director.
“They appreciate a place that’s single-sex, all women. There are a number of women who are extremely isolated.”
It’s a familiar feeling for some users of the shelter, like Alejandra Robert.
She says eight years ago she was coming off a turbulent divorce but had a successful real estate business, a little girl, and owned three properties including a cottage.
It all ended a year later, after a violent car accident in Longueuil took her memory, caused her to lose her job and left her homeless, she said.
“I lost everything,” she said. “I went out on the street and I thought: ‘where am I?’ I was very sick.”
She said the shelter’s efforts offered her a safe haven as she pieced her life back together.
Pauline Harrison has been going to the shelter for more than 30 years.
For her the road was much longer and harder. She says she hit a stretch on the street where she turned to prostitution for money.
“I was to a point where I wanted to hurt myself,” she said tearfully.
“I was giving up with my life. I was homeless, I used to sleep outside. I found this place and it helped me find an apartment.”
According to the shelter’s own figures, it serves more than 40,000 meals and takes in more than 25,000 clients in a year.
It got a shot in the arm from CN, who donated funding of $25,000 while the shelter waited on more than $100,000 in annual funding to come through from both the city and province.
“The persons who are there are vulnerable persons,” Vallee said. “They don’t choose to be on the street. We have to help them.”
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