OLDS — Recent murders and a skyrocketing caseload underline the crying need for an emergency shelter in Olds and area, according to Mountain View Emergency Shelter Society outreach services coordinator Emilie Webb.
During an interview, Webb said the number of clients the society helps shot up 235 per cent from 2019 to 2020 and the caseload has continued to increase this year.
She said there had been at least three murders in the region in the last year or two and it’s her understanding that domestic violence played a part in each.
Webb said the COVID-19 pandemic appears to be accentuating stress in some families.
“I think COVID is just bringing out the crazy in some people,” Webb said.
“You know, people are unemployed; they haven’t got a lot going on. Mental health is huge at the minute. I think it’s having this big domino effect on everybody. It’s kind of scary.
“So I provide danger assessments to clients to determine their risk of homicide in a domestic violence relationship and we do that because it is a very genuine risk that they can result in homicides.”
She said many people mistakenly think emergency shelters are only needed for women fleeing violent male partners. Men sometimes have to leave violent female partners too.
"I’ve just worked with another male who had to leave with his three kids," she said.
Webb said there are a lot of cases of people stalking their ex-partners.
She conceded there are emergency shelters in other communities such as Red Deer, Rocky Mountain House and Calgary.
But Webb said those places aren’t really a solution for adults with children. They’re just too far away and it’s difficult for long-time rural residents to adjust to life in cities.
Webb looked up MVESS stats on that for a board member.
“There was a shocking number of clients who didn’t go to a shelter and either stayed in the home or stayed in the home until we could find them alternative housing to a shelter,” she said. "They didn’t want to leave Mountain View County because that would mean leaving their job, leaving their kids’ schools, leaving everything they know in this area and moving to a big city.
“If they moved to, say, Calgary, they can’t necessarily maintain – or afford to maintain – a job in Olds because it’s an hour commute and gas and all that kind of stuff.
“They can’t necessarily keep their kids in the same school so by going to a shelter in the city, they’re risking losing (all that) and not necessarily being able to find a job in the city at the moment with employment the way it is.
“So they stuck it out, either in the home for a longer period of time for good or they waited until we could find a reasonable rent property in Olds or surrounding areas so they could keep their kids in school and their jobs.”
Webb said another factor is that rent in the region is “not cheap,” so a lot of those people stayed at home for “a lot longer than they necessarily could have or should have, putting them at a higher risk for their safety.”
