An advocate believes there are positives coming out of the province’s new shelter standards released last week, but there are still many issues that need to be addressed.

Dan Meades, the provincial coordinator with the Transition House Association, calls some aspects of the new standards “really aspirational,” and if all of the changes were implemented today, there would be a net positive.

However, he says it is currently “just a document,” and people who were living in unsafe shelters the day before it was released are still in that situation.

One of the issues with the standards, according to Meades, is that it prescribes how government plans to continue using private for profit shelters, something which creates problems with enforcement.

Meades says for-profit shelters have an incentive to keep some of the money they get from government. As such, an enforcement arm is needed to make sure the money is being spent properly. If for-profit shelters weren’t being used, he argues it would eliminate that requirement.

Meades points out another issue with the standards is that nowhere in it do they mention the word ‘women.’

He says there is “no recognition” that the move to a low barrier model will have a “significant impact” on the safety of women who use and work in these shelters. He is concerned about how government plans to keep women safe.