How Homelessness Affects Vulnerable Women
byThe #CHVCatchUp is a monthly series featuring the latest updates and news from Covenant House Vancouver. Miss604 is proud to be the Official Blog Partner of CHV. The following post has been contributed by their team:
How Homelessness Affects Vulnerable Women
International Women’s Day
This International Women’s Day (March 8) at Covenant House Vancouver, we are committed to empowering young women, girls, and gender-diverse youth, who face unique challenges that often contribute to, or are a result of, homelessness.
Domestic Violence
Women are victims of domestic violence more frequently than their male counterparts, which can force them to leave their homes due to an unsafe situation or to finally separate from their partner. Often women in these situations lack community or family support as their significant other has limited their relationships and/or controlled their finances.
Approximately 699 women and 236 accompanying children are turned away from domestic violence shelters across Canada, each day.
Exploitation and Human Trafficking
While on the streets, women are often targets to be trafficked, both for sex and labour, which are the two main reasons why people are trafficked in Canada. As women are more vulnerable physically, they are more susceptible to exploitation, because they often will take more compromising situations, that include partnering with someone who may not have their best interests at heart, to avoid sleeping on the streets.
From 2010 to 2020, 96% of detected victims of human trafficking were women and girls, with 69% under the age of 25. Indigenous women, girls, and Two Spirit individuals are particularly vulnerable to this exploitation.
Hidden Homelessness
Women are often a part of the “hidden homeless” population, which means that they will couch surf with friends or sleep on the bus all night to avoid sleeping on the streets. This means that women are less accounted for in homeless surveys and, as a result, there are less supports in place for them.
Lack of Community Support
Many traditional shelter systems are not designed with the safety and developmental needs of young women and gender-diverse youth in mind. This lack of services leaves them feeling unsafe and unsupported, which can push many into homelessness.
Single women head 90% of the families who use emergency shelters.
How We Address the Need
At Covenant House Vancouver, we offer self-identified, gender-specific spaces and staff that allow youth to feel safe and respected. We listen, we understand, and we affirm their feelings — which empowers them to make choices that restore their dignity. We also have free access to essential needs, like pads and tampons, and comprehensive safety planning, to meet the distinct needs of young women and gender-diverse youth.
SOURCES: Statistics from Women’s National Housing & Homelessness Network
Double Your Impact this International Women’s Day
This International Women’s Day, an anonymous donor has stepped up to ensure the safety and empowerment of all youth. From now until March 14th, your donation will be matched, dollar for dollar, to double your impact.
Your support helps provide safe, inclusive spaces and vital resources to young women, girls, and gender-diverse youth who face the greatest vulnerabilities. Together, we can embrace equity and create a world where every young person can dream big and thrive.
Join us in embracing equity. Make a difference today.
