Quebec organizations receive $50 million federal funding to support women fleeing violence

Survivors of gender-based violence in Quebec will gain access to safe housing and support services through a $50 million federal funding agreement announced Saturday.

The money flows through the Canada-Quebec Housing Agreement and targets two core needs: helping survivors transition to and remain in private rental housing, and providing direct financial assistance through Quebec's Rent Supplement Program.

The timing reflects an urgent crisis. Quebec has recorded 14 suspected femicides so far this year, including three within two weeks, according to authorities.

Organizations working on the ground say the funding addresses a critical gap. Diane Pilote, executive director of Chez Doris, emphasized the link between poverty, homelessness and violence. "We are together today because there are solutions for them," she said, noting that the funding offers concrete hope to organizations working to break cycles of precarity and violence against women.

Elizabeth Liston, communications director at Le Chaînon, one of Montreal's oldest women's shelters, framed housing stability as a protection against cycling back into abuse. "Being victim of gendered violence is a pathway to homelessness," she said. "The first thing we do when we welcome a woman who's experienced domestic violence is we want to place her rapidly, we want to stabilize her residential situation as fast as possible in order to avoid her going back to her aggressor."

Liston said the $50 million represents recognition that survivors need more than emergency beds. "They need a team of psychosocial workers who can accompany them and support them and they need to rebuild themselves," she said. "And so that money will allow us to support that work."

The funding is expected to help thousands of women access the housing stability and wraparound services necessary to rebuild their lives free from violence.