Meghan Markle Visits Vancouver Women's Shelter

Meghan Markle was reported to have returned to Canada last week after she and Prince Harry announced they would step down from their senior royal roles, and she made a surprise visit to a women's shelter in Vancouver on January 14.

The Duchess of Sussex visited the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre, where she reportedly spoke to staff about issues affecting women in the neighbourhood. Markle had been spotted at Victoria's airport earlier in the day, where she boarded a seaplane bound for Vancouver, according to the Vancouver Sun.

The centre, which is a drop-in centre and emergency night shelter, posted a lovely group photo Meghan took with some of the staff there on its Facebook page.

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"She was just casual and lovely," Kate Gibson, the centre's acting director, told the CBC. "She just wants to get to know the community. We know she's going to come to Canada and I think possibly the West Coast. I think that she just doesn't want to be sort of a stranger in the midst. She just wants to get to know people."

The Downtown Eastside Women's Centre works to to provide women in the area with “basic needs including nutritious meals, laundry, showers, phone and computer access, and clothing, as well as support services including advocacy, housing outreach, HIV case management, Chinese seniors outreach, victim services and skills development," according to the page. It also serves up to 500 meals every day and its kitchen provides 182,500 meals every year.

“I thought she was really down to earth," Kate continued to the CBC. "She's very good at sort of picking something up from the conversation and expanding that a bit and asking questions and empathetic. She was really great."

There are more than 2,200 people who are homeless in Vancouver, according to the City's most recent data from March 2019. Of those, 614 people were living on the street, while 1,609 people were living in "sheltered locations, including emergency shelters, detox centres, safe houses and hospitals, with no fixed address."

Markle has a long history of volunteering with shelters in Canada. While she lived in Toronto and worked as a cast member on Suits, she regularly helped out at the St. Felix Centre, a non-profit that offers services to homeless and underhoused people. In December, Meghan and Harry selected the centre as one of 12 charities they wanted fans to support over the holiday season. St. Felix responded by posting an unseen photo of the duchess volunteering in its kitchen while she lived in the city.

According to the website of the Fred Victor Centre, one of Toronto’s largest shelters located in the east end of its downtown, more than 9,200 people are homeless in the city “on any given night.”

The centre, which also runs drop-in programs and a 24-hour respite program, also pointed out another extraordinary act of kindness from Markle.

“The Duchess also donated food from the set of Suits, and on one Thanksgiving she brought in all the food, turkeys and the fixings for over 100 people.”

On Jan. 13, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Global News he’s supportive of the Sussexes spending more time in Canada, though there are still more issues to sort out with regard to what that looks like, who will handle their security and more. He said Canadians have a "general feeling of appreciation" for Harry and Meghan.

British Columbia Premier John Horgan agreed with him on Jan. 14.

"If they want to come back and put down roots here, I'm sure I can find something for Harry to do," he said, according to CTV News.