The real life composite scenarios introduced you to two women, one who was cisgender (having a gender-identity that aligns with her birth sex) and one who was transgender (having a gender-identity that is different than the male sex organs she was born with). Throughout this chapter we will refer to “women” and “men” with the recognition that one’s gender identity may or may not match the sex they were born into. We will explore this further in the third section of the chapter, but we feel it is important to step outside of that “gender normativity” box right from the start. While we have a section devoted to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and/or questioning, two-spirit, plus additional identities not named (LGBTQ2S+), we are not limiting our consideration of these individual’s experiences to just that one section.

As such, when we ask you here to consider what is unique about the experience of homelessness for women, we encourage you to consider this question in light of all women who represent a broad gender diversity. How might homelessness be different for cisgender women, transgender women, and gender diverse people compared to cisgender men, for instance? What additional considerations might women and feminine identified individuals have that are unique to their experiences? As you consider these questions, we encourage you to use the space below to record your answers. You may write as little or as much as you wish to explore your thoughts on this issue.

We began this chapter by sharing the tale of a hotel door hanger that can be hung on either the tie or the pearls side to indicate the occupant – a man or a woman – does not wish to be disturbed. Why a person would need to make an outward declaration of their gender identity to the hotel cleaning staff remains unclear, but beyond that it is unsafe. When this item is discussed with students in a classroom setting, they often raise the point that people who identify as women (whether cisgender, transgender and/or gender diverse) may not be inclined to put the pearl necklace side up because it signals to passersby that there is a woman inside. Students suggest that even if a person identified as a woman, she would be more likely to put the tie side up for the sense of safety it provides. While a very simple example, this idea of which side to hang the sign on is actually rather informative about issues women face related to homelessness – namely, trying to remain hidden to increase a sense of safety and the risks of presenting with a female identity in a society that can often be quite predatory.

In this section, we consider what is unique about the experience of homelessness for cisgender women, transgender women, and gender diverse feminine individuals. What we see is that the issues are complex and intersecting. Research has shown that homelessness often begins early in life for women and gender diverse individuals, and that their subsequent experiences tend to be a chronic and chaotic cycle of moving in and out of precarious housing situations (Schwan, Vaccaro, Reid, Ali, & Baig, 2021b). Women are commonly amongst the hidden homeless population, moving between temporary accommodations rather than entering the emergency homelessness sector, because of gender inequity and a range of structural factors beyond their control (Andermann et al., 2021).

As we will see throughout this section, women’s experiences of homelessness tend to be directly related to gender-based violence and trauma. They often have children in their care that they try to protect from harm or from being removed by child welfare authorities. When children are removed, as we will see, the impact can be further trauma, isolation, and grief. Homelessness has a deeply negative impact on the health and well-being of cisgender and transgender women. Surviving homelessness requires a tremendous amount of strength to overcome these obstacles. Often the first obstacle is – much like the door sign dilemma – trying not to be noticed by people who may take advantage and exploit them. In the first video, Dr. Jacqueline Kennelly explains further.

Dr. Jacqueline Kennelly: Women’s homelessness

In this video, Dr. Jacqueline Kennelly argues that unlike men, who tend to be visible on the streets and in emergency shelters, women’s homelessness is often more hidden. Because it is not safe for women to be on the streets, particularly at night, they are more likely to protect themselves by partnering with a man or group, couch surf, trade sex for a place to stay, and/or move around each night. This video is 1:39 in length and has closed captions available in English.

Cisgender women, transgender women, and gender diverse individuals may avoid shelters for safety reasons and instead stay temporarily in someone else’s residence. They may stay with friends or family, they may stay with someone they are in a relationship with, or with someone who is accepting sexual favours in exchange for accommodations. Research has shown that women and gender diverse people face significant barriers in accessing emergency shelter beds when they need them (Schwan et al., 2021b). Consequently, many women in precarious housing situations are reliant on relationships to maintain their accommodations. Consider, for instance, the results of the Pan-Canadian Women’s Housing & Homelessness Survey, which indicated experiencing a breakup was the primary reason women and gender diverse individuals lost their most recent housing (Schwan et al., 2021b).

When a woman loses her housing, she often has limited resources and options available. In a study of how communities use a gender-based approach to homelessness prevention and planning, Dr. Abe Oudshoorn and his team (2021) found that cisgender and transgender women are under-recognized and underserved by a general lack of tailored interventions for this population. They further note that part of what is driving this lack of services is a gap in data about the diversity of women’s needs related to gender identity, sexual orientation, and ethnicity (Oudshoorn et al., 2021). In the next video, Dr. Abe Oudshoorn explains further how many of our current homelessness sector approaches were designed for cisgender men and the impact that has on women seeking to access these supports.

Dr. Abe Oudshoorn: Exclusionary system responses for women experiencing homelessness

In this video, Dr. Abe Oudshoorn argues that our current homelessness systems and processes were designed around the needs of middle-aged white men, making them unintentionally exclusionary to cis and trans female-identified individuals. He notes that homelessness is a gendered experience, including the pathways in, experiences of, and exits from. Dr. Oudshoorn provides the example of prioritization, in which acuity assessments are given to people at shelters and through street outreach to determine their level of need. These efforts often fail to identify women, who are more likely to be experiencing hidden homelessness outside of these locations. Through this approach women go unnoticed, making them less able to access services and supports tied to the assessments. Further, when women are included, their acuity scores tend to be lower because the metrics are defined in a narrow way that does not account for the severity of their situations. Dr. Oudshoorn further notes that female-identified individuals are at high risk for sexual violence and exploitation, and that they comprise the majority of single-parent families within the shelter system. This video is 4:24 in length and has closed captions available in English.

There are many reasons why women and gender diverse individuals lose their housing. However, experiences of violence and the resulting lack of safety are amongst the most prevalent. The Pan-Canadian survey, for instance, showed that safety issues are common concerns that threaten the housing stability of women and gender diverse individuals, and that 75% report being survivors of trauma or abuse (Schwan et al., 2021b). In the chapter on Public Health, we discussed the challenges of telling people who are without housing to “stay home” as a protective measure. Consider how this same message – to stay home – would sound equally distressing to a woman who might be housed but in a violent relationship. Yakubovich and Maki (2021) considered women’s experiences of gender-based violence during COVID-19 and noted that while the Federal government increased financial support to Violence Against Women (VAW) shelters, the nation still lacks a coordinated strategy, legislation, and funding framework to support coordinated interpersonal violence prevention efforts.

As Oudshoorn et al., (2021) noted previously, a major concern is that women and gender diverse individuals are at increased risk of gender-based violence, but they require interventions that are not just tailored to gender, but to sexual orientation and ethnicity as well. We encourage you to think about the different needs that cisgender women, transgender women, and gender diverse individuals may have to help prevent experiences of violence in their lives and promote recovery when it does occur. These next two videos provide further insight into the intersections of homelessness and domestic violence, as well as the critical need to incorporate anti-racist practices into our approaches.

Dr. Katrina Milaney: What is unique about the experience of homelessness for women?

In this video Dr. Katrina Milaney argues that every person who experiences homelessness has had some trauma in their life, often dating back to childhood. For women, these traumas tend to be compounded by long histories of violence, exploitation, and victimization that have deeply negative implications for mental health, that get worse the longer a woman remains in homelessness. Yet, women’s homelessness can be difficult to identify as many avoid shelters for safety reasons, opting instead to couch surf or remain in unsafe housing situations. Dr. Milaney notes that a unique aspect of women’s homelessness is that of mothering and/or becoming pregnant. While caring for a child is a major consideration, she argues that many interventions are directed at single adults and youth, as opposed to the family unit. She concludes that more supports are needed to support women and families experiencing homelessness. This video is 2:18 in length and has closed captions available in English.

Featured Reading:

Milaney, K., Williams, N., Lockerbie, S. L., Dutton, D. J., & Hyshka, E. (2020). Recognizing and responding to women experiencing homelessness with gendered and trauma-informed care. BMC Public Health, 20(1), 397. 

Women and gender diverse individuals experience multiple forms of violence and victimization in their lives. When you think about this, you may think of domestic interpersonal violence that occurs within the home, but we also need to consider the prevalence of sexual trafficking that occurs across the country. When someone is without their own secure housing, their level of vulnerability increases. This creates a ‘no win’ situation, as women and gender diverse individuals who stay in emergency shelters may become known to predators through their presence, and those who try to remain hidden may encounter dangerous people in unmonitored spaces. Consider this issue, of sexual trafficking in Canada, as you watch the next video with Dr. Katrina Milaney, followed by a brief public awareness video created by Peel Regional Police in Ontario.

Dr. Katrina Milaney: Women’s homelessness and rural trafficking

In this video, Dr. Katrina Milaney discusses human trafficking for sexual purposes as being a particular kind of trauma and violence that women experience. She notes that it can occur in all size communities, including those that are rural, and that by moving these women around those who exploit them are disconnecting them from social supports, such as friends and family, and emergency supports, such as the police. This video is 1:26 in length and has closed captions available in English.

Researchers have evaluated interventions aimed at supporting individuals experiencing homelessness related to gender-based violence to learn more about what is effective. Young women who participated in a community-based, trauma-informed group intervention reported that they appreciated the program was safe, for women-only, allowed them to share lived experiences, and incorporated tailored psychoeducation to improve their confidence, coping skills, health, relationships, and future directions (Reid et al., 2020). Additional research has shown that these programs remain effective over time. After 12 months, in one study, there was a significant improvement to the quality-of-life reported by women in the community-based, trauma-informed group intervention (Bani-Fatemi et al., 2020). These findings indicate programs like this need to be securely funded, so that they have the ability and resources to offer ongoing supports on a consistent basis.

Another study that looked at an intervention for survivors of sexual exploitation, forced marriage, and “honour” crimes, found that in order to be effective approaches should focus on the service user’s needs, be flexible and accessible, and draw upon strong connections within the organization and beyond (Kahan, Lamanna, Rajakulendran, Noble, & Stergiopoulos, 2020). It is important that we think about the best way to offer support to women and gender diverse individuals coping with violence and trauma in their lives, including through evidence-based interventions like post-shelter advocacy counselling, case management, and permanent housing subsidies that offset the cost of housing (Andermann et al., 2021). Gender-based violence is a pressing issue that greatly impacts women and gender diverse individuals at higher proportions. In the next video, Dr. Katrina Milaney explains why “trauma-informed care” is not a buzzword, but rather a critically important approach for supporting survivors.

Dr. Katrina Milaney: Women’s homelessness and trauma-informed care

In this video, Dr. Katrina Milaney discusses the experience of violence as being a particularly gendered pathway into homelessness for women. She notes that service delivery has increasingly moved towards the recognition that safety must be a key consideration in finding housing and making policies that impact women. She further notes that many women who experience homelessness have children, who may or may not be in their care, and that the removal of children is a form of trauma that requires healing. Dr. Milaney concludes that trauma-informed care is not a buzzword, but rather critically important in acknowledging and responding to the histories of violence and exploitation that women have been through. This video is 2:20 in length and has closed captions available in English.

If a woman’s children are in her care or she is trying to regain custody, securing affordable and appropriate housing is a particular challenge. Housing must meet the needs of the family and child welfare workers will consider the size, number of bedrooms, and sleeping arrangements in making their determinations about whether to return a child to parental care. Further, if a woman is in subsidized housing and has her children removed by the state, she will often be removed from her housing unit as well because she is considered “over-housed,” such as a single person living in a three-bedroom apartment. While one must wonder if being “over-housed” is really the issue to focus on, when that same woman seeks to regain custody of her children she is likely to be denied because she does not have housing suitable to her children’s needs. When we talk about systemic barriers that impact women’s access to housing, this is one such example of the gaps in the system.

We routinely ask you to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and here we do so again. The cards below are quotes from two women who at the time were mothering while experiencing homelessness. They demonstrate the challenges mothers go through in trying to care for their children while maintaining housing and looking after their own well-being. As you read these cards, we encourage you to continue to think about how women’s experiences of homelessness – and what they need – are often different than that of a single adult cisgender man, for whom most homelessness services are designed.

Dr. Sarah Benbow and her team have explored the intersections of homelessness and mothering and found that these women have to navigate unsafe private and public spaces, related to exclusion from society and stigma resulting from public discrimination and surveillance (Benbow, Forchuk, Berman, Gorlick, & Ward-Griffin, 2019b). They further found that when these mothers sought support from the homelessness system, they received contradictory responses that were supposed to offer help but served to further perpetuate their experiences of exclusion (Benbow, Forchuk, Gorlick, Berman, & Ward-Griffin, 2019c). As a result, women who are mothering while experiencing homelessness may internalize the expectations and regulations upon them while also pushing back as a source of resilience and resistance (Benbow, Forchuk, Berman, Gorlick, & Ward-Griffin, 2019a). According to Benbow et al., (2019a) women in these situations have demonstrated a keen sense of agency, by working and advocating for safety and housing for themselves and their children.

Research has shown that ecologically based treatment (EBT) is particularly effective for helping mothers with children in their care become securely housed, by helping them develop life skills, connect with services in the community, engage in therapeutic dialogue, and process trauma and victimization they may have experienced (Murnan, Zhang, & Slesnick, 2018). Processing trauma, as we have seen, is critical for many women experiencing homelessness, whether they are parenting or not. In the following video, Dr. Naomi Thulien explains how parenting and trauma are two prominent gendered aspects of homelessness, that can often go hand-in-hand.

Dr. Naomi Thulien: What is unique about the experience of homelessness for women?

In this video, Dr. Naomi Thulien identifies two unique aspects of women’s homelessness. First, she notes, women may have children or become pregnant. Caring for a child is an added responsibility that makes it more challenging to move through social systems, increases vulnerabilities associated with living in poverty, and often results in the mother putting her own needs after those of her children. Secondly, Dr. Thulien argues that women who experience homelessness are at increased risk of sexual exploitation, through trafficking and assault. This video is 1:00 in length and has closed captions available in English.

Dr. Kaitlin Schwan: What is unique about the experience of homelessness for women?

In this video, Dr. Kaitlin Schwan argues that women experiencing homelessness have unique causes, conditions, and consequences of being on the streets, experiencing core housing need, and experiencing homelessness. She identifies four particular considerations that relate to women’s homelessness. First, women are more likely to experience hidden homelessness and are subsequently less likely to come to the attention of policymakers and politicians. This invisibility results in lower prioritization and funding for gender-based services. Second, Dr. Schwan argues that violence is a presence in women’s lives before becoming homeless, once on the street, in the shelter system, and once they have transitioned out of homelessness. She notes that these experiences create tremendous harm and that the kinds of responses we have around women’s homelessness need to be proportionate to the level of violence that this group experiences. Third, she argues that women are more likely to be caregivers for children and other family members. This adds an additional responsibility on top of earning an income and results in single mothers being over-represented among those living in poverty. Additionally, women in poverty often have their children removed from their care and our child welfare, housing, and homelessness systems operate in ways that create tremendous challenges for women trying to reunite with their children. These systems form particular barriers for racialized women and Indigenous women experiencing homelessness. Finally, Dr. Schwan concludes that there are unique health circumstances for women, gender diverse, and transgender individuals experiencing homelessness which include pregnancy, access to period supplies, and access to sexual health services. This video is 6:02 in length and has closed captions available in English.

In this section, we asked you to consider how women might experience homelessness in ways that are unique. We noted that our discussion was intentionally inclusionary of the range of ways a person can identify as a woman, whether cisgender, transgender, or gender diverse. Throughout our discussion, we saw that women are often amongst the hidden homeless population as a means of avoiding shelters and trying to protect themselves. We also, unfortunately, saw that gender-based violence and trafficking were common for women regardless of whether they stay in shelters or not. These experiences are so common amongst women and gender diverse individuals that a national survey showed 75% of respondents reported being a survivor of trauma or abuse (Schwan et al., 2021b). The need for gender-based and trauma-informed supports is undeniable for this population.

After considering the hidden nature and high rates of violence associated with women’s homelessness, we asked you to think about the additional layer of also being a mother. We saw that some women have children in their care, while others have had children removed. For all of these women, obtaining safe, secure, and affordable housing is key to being able to parent without the added stress and hardship of homelessness. As Canada moves forward with the National Housing Strategy and National Housing Strategy Act (Government of Canada, 2017, 2019), it will be imperative that the right to housing be implemented strategically for women and gender diverse individuals (Schwan, Vaccaro, Reid, & Ali, 2021a).

Women’s unique needs, related to insecure housing, violence and trauma, mothering, and reproductive health all contribute to the need for gender-specific approaches to addressing homelessness for this population. We must remember that not every woman’s experience is the same, and so these approaches also need to be representative of women’s diverse gender, sexual, and ethnic identities. As Van Berkum and Oudshoorn (2019) have argued, it is imperative that we create new programs with a diverse set of women in mind – reflecting their needs for affordable housing, safety, and to be supported by people trained in trauma- and violence- informed care.

Podcast: What is unique about the experience of homelessness for women? (20:06)

Click the link below to listen to all of the researchers answer the question “What is unique about the experience of homelessness for women?” in audio format on our podcast!