A Niagara-based study is suggesting women and gender diverse people are being hit especially hard by the current affordable housing crisis across the province.
The Brock University brief says specific programs and supports that target those segments of the population are lacking beyond the need for more housing units.
The research was based on a collaboration with the YWCA Niagara Region and a Housing Advisory Council which included women and gender-diverse people who experienced homelessness as well as members of organizations who represented people with lived experience of homelessness.
The focus group identified five key areas presenting barriers for the targeted segments seeking housing: affordability, support, trauma, discrimination and safety.
Assistant professor of political science Joanne Heritz says the safety issue often involved participants sharing stories of being on general assistance or ODSP and having to resort to joint tenancy with someone they didn’t know.
“In some of these situations, another tenant might even be invited into their place,” explained Heritz.
“So … going into their kitchen, there could be a stranger sitting there that they don’t know. So you can imagine how that would impede on their safety.”
More than half of the 20 who participated in the study reported long waiting lists for community housing with some detailing a lack of disability units.
They also disclosed that income supports such as ODSP and Ontario Works (OW) tend to penalize people who earn extra income, live with an employed family member or get a minimum-wage job.
Overall, Niagara Region’s centralized housing waitlist grew by 11.5 per cent between 2020 and 2021, increasing to 9,171 households from 8,228, according to the muncipality.
The region recorded a net loss of purpose built rental units with scarce bachelor and three-bedroom units costing 40 per cent higher than average market rents.
While vacancy rates last year fell to 1.9 per cent, vacancy rates for someone looking at an affordable dwelling saw something lower near one 1.0 per cent.
Heritz says they estimate that a single working parent spends more than half of their minimum-wage income on housing.
Poor credit scores and precarious employment also had an effect on the participants well-being leading to mental health and self-worth issues for some.
Meanwhile, survivors of partner abuse not only faced ongoing confrontations with their significant other but typically stayed paired up with their alleged abuser due to income issues.
Also, occupancy in areas with rampant substance abuse contributed to further trauma for the women recovering from addictions.
The brief revealed 14 per cent of respondents said they faced discrimination in attempting to secure housing, with 41 per cent alleging the prejudice was gender-related.
Twenty-four per cent said their bias issues appeared to be tied to their ethnicity.
Recommendations by the report for policy makers suggests more “gender-based equity in funding” for the National Housing Strategy, a measure echoed by the Women’s National Housing and Homeless network in a budget analysis.
It also advises that Ontario social assistance (OW and ODSP) rates should follow the federal government’s COVID-19 CERB example of $2,000 per person per month.
Heritz says any homelessness solution needs to be viewed through a “gender lens” by policymakers instead of using a one size fits all approach.
“Another is the need for more supports for people who are facing the trauma of homelessness,” said Heritz. “Also for those escaping gender intimate partner violence, there needs to be supports. Just when somebody leaves an abusive relationship, their trauma doesn’t end.”
The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CHMC) does currently have provisions to aid women in their housing strategy, allocating 33 per cent of investments for the needs of women and their children.
On Tuesday, The federal government upped its stake in the Rapid Housing Initiative (RHI) which is expected to create up to 4,500 new affordable housing units across Canada, with at least 25 per cent of funding going towards women-focused housing projects.
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