BACKGROUND
As a result of the work done by a committee on homelessness in the early 1980s, it was noted that the city’s existing resource centres did not meet all the needs of women in difficulty. Through their commitment to offer women who were homeless or at risk of homelessness a continuum of services, the committee noted that women had access to short-term (3 months) emergency resources, but that there was clearly a lack of medium-term (6 months to 2 years) resource centres with 24/7 psychosocial support, 365 days/year. This observation led to the establishment of Les Maisons de l’Ancre on rue Charland in Montréal in 1982.