The YWCA Practice Framework is a comprehensive document developed to focus and guide staff at the YWCA in a unified philosophy and was developed with expert consultation with frontline staff, leadership and external stakeholders. The document also serves to clarify for the general public the YWCA’s clear focus on women, particularly those who are vulnerable.
This blog series will break out sections and excerpts from the YWCA Practice Framework to share with our audiences and contribute to the social narratives about women’s issues.
Today in our Practice Framework series we are discussing the gendered experience of homelessness for women.
In Canada, women make up a significant and growing percentage of the homeless populations and the gendered experience of women’s homelessness is unique. Women are at increased vulnerability without a safe place to call home. Women sleep on the streets, trade sex for a place to stay and remain in abusive relationships to avoid entering into a cycle of homelessness. Domestic abuse is the frequent pathway into homelessness for women and their children.
Once women enter into homelessness, research indicates they are at an increased risk of violence, abuse and victimization if staying on the streets or in mixed-gender shelters. More than half of single parent families headed by a woman live in poverty and women who are homeless with their children fear the involvement of child welfare systems and the judgement of society. Women’s experience of homelessness is often unacknowledged and unrecognized. Most of the research and literature has focused on men’s experience of homelessness.
Women’s homelessness is often hidden: while 25 to 30 per cent of homeless individuals counted on the streets and in shelters are women, the majority of women’s homelessness isn’t visible. Women couch surf with friends or relatives or stay in unsafe or substandard accommodations to avoid the street or mixed-gender homeless shelters where they fear being victimized. Women may trade sex with men for a place to crash for the night or remain in unsafe or abusive relationships to avoid homelessness. Thus, without significant changes to income or economic circumstance, women may cycle through periods of unstable or insecure housing.
Solutions for people who are defined as chronically homeless, including housing first are suitable options for some women though women may be “screened out” of such program offerings which focus on people (most often men) who have been homeless frequently or for prolonged periods of time.
Homelessness and housing insecurity can be significant barriers for women to move forward in their lives through pursuit of employment, further education and supportive counselling.
At the YWCA we are proud to provide proven a Community-based Supportive Housing program as well as YWCA Sheriff King Home Crisis Shelter and the YWCA Mary Dover House Transitional Housing program, the YWCA is committed to providing safe and low-barrier accommodations to women and their families. As the largest and longest serving women’s organization in Calgary, the YWCA offers programs that create a continuum of service for women, and their families, who are struggling with poverty, homelessness, domestic abuse and isolation.
