Local women’s shelter to open new housing units in Mississauga and Brampton

A Mississauga-based women’s shelter plans to triple its capacity with new housing units in both Mississauga and Brampton.

Armagh House, which provides temporary housing and support to women and children leaving abusive households, is expected to open 10 new units at their Mississauga location at 1801 Lakeshore Rd. W early next year.

The shelter says it will also open 12 new units in Brampton.

The location of the new Brampton units hasn’t been confirmed at this time.

The 22 new units will bring Armagh’s total to 31, more than three times the nine units they currently operate.

Armagh staff at the organization’s annual general meeting in September

Peel Region has pledged to provide rental and operation subsidies for the units, with Armagh to raise funds in order to furnish and open the units.

Armagh’s executive director Jannies Le says the expansion is much needed, as shelters in Peel are over capacity and being forced to turn people away.

“This innovative pilot project, that came together in under a year, was in direct response to the epidemic of Gender Based Violence across the Region of Peel, Ontario and Canada,” Le told Insauga.com.

“As the only transitional housing provider for survivors in the Region of Peel, Armagh had to quickly expand our capacity in order to help the families, because VAW shelters are over capacity and we are all turning away families who have made that brave decision to leave their abusive situations.”

An epidemic of gender and intimate partner based violence was declared in Brampton in June after the murders of several South Asian women in the community sparked public outcry from the community.

“There are 24 municipalities and regions across Ontario that have already declared a gender-based violence and/or intimate partner violence epidemic, and the City of Brampton wants to take a stand and advocate with these municipalities to push the Province of Ontario to officially recognize a gender-based violence and/or intimate partner violence epidemic at the provincial level,” said Brampton councillor Navjit Kaur Brar.

With files from Ryan Rumbolt and Karen Longwell