The Shelter provides a 24-hour crisis response for women and their children who are being abused in their homes. There are trained staff members on duty at all times and the shelter is open all year including public holidays. The Shelter houses on average 22 women and 35 children who stay in the shelter for three to four months.

The benefits of the Shelter being part of the Centre are that shelter residents have easy and safe access to a range of services provided by Centre partners. These include specialised counselling services such as rape, substance abuse and HIV/AIDS counselling, a free legal advice service and economic empowerment programmes.

During their stay in the Shelter, the women participate in individual and group counselling, psycho-educational workshops and job skills training. The child care worker runs a crèche for the pre-school children and organises afternoon groups for the school-going children. Children who are especially traumatised are seen by the social worker and referred to one of the Centre's partners, the Trauma Centre, for counselling.

In 2004, the Centre opened the first four second-stage housing units for Shelter residents who need to stay longer in a more secure environment and who are able to pay a small monthly rent. The women and their children are able to live in these houses for a further six to nine months.

Thanks to generous funding from Chris Pinkham and the Rolf-Stephan Nussbaum Foundation, another six houses were built in 2006. They were officially opened on 15 December 2006 by Rosieda Shabodien, well known gender and development activist.