INTRODUCTION
Twenty-five years ago, any discussion of the "homeless" in Canada referred to a relatively small number of transient single men living in "flop houses" in Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver. Today, widespread homelessness in Canada is recognized as a "national disaster" that is both rural and urban and which most dramatically affects women and children.
Women’s experiences of homelessness, however, still tend to be ignored. Homelessness is often equated exclusively with those seen on city streets, predominantly men. Although recent data suggests that in cities like Toronto, as many as one in four people living on the street may be women, street homelessness is not representative of most women’s experiences. For women with children, living on the street is an impossible option that is almost certain to mean losing their children. For single women, increased vulnerability to violence and sexual assault make street life something to be avoided at all costs. Existing shelter surveys indicate dramatic increases in the use of shelters by both single women and women with children, particularly Aboriginal women and black women. But living in a shelter is also considered a last resort and the increasing number of women in shelters is certainly only a small fraction of the number of women across Canada experiencing housing crises and homelessness in diverse ways – living with the threat of violence because there are no other housing options; living in unsafe or unhealthy accommodation; sacrificing other necessities such as food, clothing and medical needs to pay rent or to make mortgage payments; moving into overcrowded accommodation with family or friends; or losing custody of their children because of inadequate housing. Most of these individualized "housing crises" do not show up in homelessness counts or media portrayals of homelessness, but they increasingly define the lives of lower income women in Canada.
There has been too little analysis of homelessness as a women’s issue or consideration of various programs and responses to homelessness from the standpoint of the particular barriers facing women in meeting their housing needs. The goal of this research project is to consider homelessness from this neglected perspective, to facilitate collaboration among women in order to address some of the important omissions and failures of current federal programs and to fashion appropriate strategies through which the federal government could respond to the growing crisis of women’s homelessness in Canada.
During an era characterized by the withdrawal of the federal government from the housing field, and given that provinces hold ultimate constitutional responsibility for most housing in Canada, a focus on federal policies and programs may seem anachronistic. However, most of those with whom we have consulted agree that it is important to recognize the unique responsibilities of the federal government and the role that it plays in the various policy areas that have a direct effect on women’s homelessness.
Although special arrangements would need to be made with respect to Quebec, local control and administration of housing and income programs does not remove the need for national co-ordination and leadership. As is noted in s. 36 of the Canadian Constitution, the federal government and the provinces are jointly committed to ensuring public services of reasonable quality to all Canadians. It is the federal government which is responsible for reporting on Canada’s compliance with international human rights law guaranteeing the right to adequate housing and for ensuring that all levels of government respond to the strongly worded "concerns" from a number of U.N. human rights treaty monitoring bodies about growing homelessness as a violation of fundamental human rights in Canada. The federal government has constitutional responsibility for First Nations’ Aboriginal housing and thus for addressing what is widely recognized, both in Canada and internationally, as "the most pressing human rights issue facing Canadians." Under the Social Union Framework Agreement, the federal government is jointly committed with the provinces to "meeting the needs of Canadians" including ensuring access "to essential social programs" and providing "appropriate assistance to those in need."
The National Housing Act (NHA) mandates a diverse and significant role for the federal government with respect to "the improvement of housing and living conditions." While the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) has divested itself of direct responsibility for many social housing programs, it continues to be a partner with provinces in social housing agreements, provides about two billion dollars of subsidy for social housing in a wide range of social housing and rent supplement programs, and has direct responsibility for overseeing federally funded co-operative housing.
As will be seen in the review of federal programs in assisted housing, the federal government historically took the lead role in developing affordable rental housing programs. When the federal government withdrew from funding new social housing programs in recent years, provinces followed suit with cuts in expenditure that were even more dramatic than those initiated by the federal government. Recent attempts at reversing this trend have been spearheaded by the federal government and it is important that these new initiatives be considered from the standpoint of women’s homelessness.
The federal government also plays the lead role with respect to programs and policies related to access to homeownership and assistance for homeowners. While it is true that many low income women are unable to consider the option of homeownership, a considerable proportion of single mothers and other women continue to rely on this option, and many more might benefit from it if discriminatory barriers were removed. Chapter Two of the study focuses on federal government programs specifically related to housing, looking particularly at: A. The federal government role in assisted rental housing; B. Home Ownership and C. Federal Homelessness Initiatives from the standpoint of women’s housing and homelessness.
Aboriginal housing remains a critical component of federal responsibilities toward Aboriginal people. With living conditions on-reserve having been described as "intolerable" by the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples and with Aboriginal women and children dramatically over-represented among the homeless in urban centers like Vancouver, this area of federal responsibility, reviewed in Chapter Three, is critical with respect to women’s homelessness.
In addition to the federal role in housing programs, it is also important to consider the impact of income policies and programs in which the federal government plays a key role. The protection of income security resulting from unemployment, long term disability and pregnancy and parenting of infants, a federal responsibility under the federal Employment Insurance Program, is critical to security of tenure for women and to ensuring that women have an income with which to pay for housing during times of increased risk of homelessness. Also, federal cost-sharing agreements for social assistance programs have always been an integral component of the protection of income security, critical to meeting women’s housing needs, particularly those of single mothers, women with disabilities, newcomers and young women. Adequate financial assistance for costs of housing was a requirement of such programs under the Canada Assistance Plan Act, and subsequent changes in federal/provincial agreements in this area have had a dramatic impact on women’s homelessness. In addition, a new reliance in federal provincial agreements on the income tax system as a vehicle for providing financial assistance and funding programs for families living in poverty through the National Child Benefit, establishes a direct link between federal taxation policies and the ability of women with children to meet their housing needs. Chapter Four considers these three critical aspects of federal income policy as they impact on women’s homelessness: A. Income Assistance and the repeal of the Canada Assistance Plan; B. The National Child Benefit; and C. Employment Insurance
Prior to commencing our analysis of federal programs and policies in light of women’s homelessness, however, it is important to consider in more general terms how we ought to conceive of homelessness from women’s perspectives. The first chapter, Re-thinking Homelessness, considers ways in which traditional definitions and approaches to homelessness have failed to include or address women’s diverse experiences. We consider some of the inter-connections between housing programs, subsidy eligibility and allocation, income security, access to credit, security of tenure, transportation and service needs which are often neglected but which are central to women’s experiences of homelessness. We also consider, in this section, some of the distinctive issues facing rural women, Aboriginal women, young women, immigrant women, single mothers, women with disabilities and racialized women that have been ignored in prevailing conceptions and approaches to homelessness, and which need to be part of the framework within which we consider federal programs and their impacts on women’s homelessness.