Women's shelter numbers down.

OTTAWA -- The numbers of female victims admitted to shelters for domestic violence declined by 7% in a two year period ending in 2003, according to the Statistics Canada Transition Home Survey, a biennial census of such facilities. However, the declines were due largely to decreases in annual admissions of children, which were down 12%; admissions of women remained the same.

Nearly one-third of all women who had sought temporary accommodation in a shelter for abused women on April 14, 2004, (the "snapshot day") had been in a shelter some time during the past, according to the statistical agency's biennial census of residential facilities that provide shelter to female victims of domestic violence.

The data also indicates that on the snapshot day,

* 3,274 women and 2,835 children were in the shelters,

* 82% were escaping abuse, and

* the remaining women and children were there for other reasons, housing, addictions and mental health issues.

Of all women who had stayed in shelters previously,

* 40% had been there once in the previous year,

* 38% had been there two to four times, and

* about 1 in 10 had been to the facility five times or more during the previous year.

In the year-long period 95,326 women and 36,840 children were admitted to 473 shelters, largely for reasons of abuse. However, the numbers being admitted for other reasons--such as housing problems, drug and alcohol addiction, and mental health issues, have increased.

On snapshot day, one-fifth or 93 of all shelters referred 221 women and 112 children elsewhere because the shelter was full, a decline from previous years.

Among women who left such shelters on snapshot day, only 1 in 10 planned to return to their spouse or common-law partner. Two-thirds of women did not intend to return to their spouse. or partner. It was unknown where a quarter of the departing women intended to reside.

Between April 1, 2003 and March 31, 2004, there were 543 known shelters in Canada providing residential services to abused women and their children. While transition homes still constituted the majority of shelters providing refuge to women fleeing domestic violence, emergency-type facilities formed a growing proportion of shelters serving abused women.