About the Project
For decades, Canada has faced a homelessness crisis. But not all faces of homelessness have been truly seen, understood, or counted in. The 1990’s divestment and privatization of social housing to municipalities, left many poor and low income Canadians without home. Women (cis and trans), disproportionately impacted by low income, became subject to the unintended consequences of this divestment and many were left homeless: with or without their children. The impact and sequelae of this divestment remains, and today more women are experiencing homelessness than in the past. But just how many women and girls are homeless, remains unknown. Without accurate national counts of who and how many are homeless, the problem remains grossly underestimated and misunderstood.
What is known, is that the experience of homelessness is gendered and women, girls and transgender women experience homelessness differently than those of other gender. This includes not only the challenges women and girls face during episodes of homelessness and transitions into permanent housing, but also the myriad risk factors women are already confronted by as they move through society (e.g., poverty, trauma, interpersonal violence). There is a distinct difference between those of other gender and women’s safety during experiences of homelessness. In efforts to seek safer alternatives than public spaces and services, women and girls become less visible to society as they rely on friends, relatives or previous partners for accommodation. This hidden nature of women’s homelessness is associated with the common misrepresentation and underreporting of the extent of the issue, as well as fewer community services tailored specifically to support women and girls’ needs.
It is both a human right and social good to ensure that every woman and girl has a safe, affordable, accessible, and permanent place to call home. Due to its gendered nature, responses to prevent and end women and girls homelessness must include both a gender-based analysis and approach. This ensures that the many diverse and intersecting social locations that women and girls occupy are realized and that community responses are tailored to their unique needs. The call to use a gender-based approach in community planning on homelessness has been voiced by researchers, leaders, advocates, and allies, however the question remained of how Canadian communities have/are responding to women’s and girls’ homelessness:
- In which ways are (or are not) Canadian communities including a gender-based approach within community plans to end homelessness?
- Where gendered approaches are lacking, what are the barriers or limitations to their inclusion?
- Where gendered approaches exist, what are facilitators to enabling them?
Research Team
Abe Oudshoorn
Kayla May
Amy Van Berkum
Kaitlin Schwan
Alex Nelson
Faith Eiboff
Stephanie Begun
Naomi Nichols
Colleen Van Loon
The Partnership
This project represents a partnership between All Our Sisters (AOS) and a researcher from the Centre for Research in Health Equity and Social Inclusion (CRHESI) at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Western University.
Funding
This Project entitled “Exploring the Presence of Gender-Based Approaches to Women’s Homelessness in Canadian Communities” received funding from AOS, however, the views expressed are the personal views of the author and AOS accept no responsibility for them.
Ce projet intitulé « Explorer la présence d’approches sexospécifiques de l’itinérance des femmes dans les communautés canadiennes» a reçu un financement d’AOS, cependant, les opinions exprimées sont les opinions personnelles de l’auteur et AOS n’accepte aucune responsabilité à leur égard.
Findings
Knowledge Translation
Click here to access the final report.