home / advocate for change / WHAG / platform statement #4

WHAG platform statements

The Women's Housing Advocacy Group invites you to read our platforms addressing the areas in need of the most attention for women's housing needs and homelessness to be solved. We identify the problems, and invite you to be part of the solution.

support services

part of the problem

The need for housing that integrates a range of supports to assist a portion of those in affordable housing to attain, maintain and sustain their housing has been well-demonstrated. The 2003 CERA Report, Women and Housing in Canada: Barriers to Equality reports that, "homelessness relates to more than simply housing and that a review of the causes of homelessness needs to consider a much wider range of government programs and policies than housing programs per se." For women, the need for supports to maintain housing is related primarily to the increased likelihood that they are survivors of violence and that they bear the primary or exclusive responsibility for raising children. To date, Provincial mental health reform has not integrated any consideration of community-based supportive housing, despite massive deinstitutionalization and clear research linking mental health issues with homelessness.

The Golden Report identifies that mental illness and addictions are contributing factors in determining a person's vulnerability to homelessness. For women, these issues are most frequently linked to a history of psychological trauma, such as childhood sexual abuse, violence in their intimate relationships, experience of gender persecution and rape in the context of emigration or civil war. Data from homeless shelters, assaulted women's shelters, supportive housing and drop-ins show that a high percentage of women experience on-going living difficulties as a result of trauma, and that they require support to maintain their housing. Recent studies of homeless populations in both Canada and the United States are bearing this out statistically (North & Smith, 1992).

The high rate of trauma survivors in Toronto's alternative housing communities shows the need for women-only developments. This would create a sense of safety for a significant number of those who seek supportive housing and are prone to lose affordable housing due to the exploitation and harassment that can take place in mixed gender units (Borderlands of Homelessness, 1996).

part of the solution

Supports such as hostels, drop-ins, women's counselling services, family support centers, parent relief programs, mental health services, addictions programs, childcare and employment and training programs, as well as settlement services for new immigrants, adult ESL classes, community health centres and legal clinics all form a network of supports that assist in sustaining housing. More specifically, in the development of housing itself:

• Non-profit housing that accommodates vulnerable clients such as the recently homeless, women fleeing violence and those with mental health challenges should have access to funds to provide supportive services.
• The Golden Report calls for safe, affordable housing with individualized supports that are portable and involve choice on the part of the tenant.

This means that the development of new housing and the administration of all joint housing programs must include a flexible range of supportive housing supports available on site or from an external source.

Housing proposals for this tenant population should:

• Provide opportunities for tenants to develop their skills in management-related activities if they wish
• Allow access to a co-ordinated eviction prevention program, that combines supports for conflict resolution and the prevention of rent arrears
• Recognize the potential need for attendant care for women with disabilities
• Develop culturally appropriate services, such as translation, interpreters

Recognition of the critical role of support services in the maintenance of housing should be reflected in the allotment of funds to provide support services for social assistance recipients (see platform # 2, income security).

more

about WHAG
Canada: more on the crisis

platform statements:

• sustaining, maintaining a supply of safe housing for women
• income security
• planning and designing housing for women
• support services

download :
WHAG platform statements

policy papers & deputations
No Religious Arbitration Coalition
week without violence
violence against women programs
if you are experiencing violence
women's housing advocacy group (WHAG)

related

media room
become a member
volunteer program
work at the YWCA
your privacy