Press Release
October 17, 2002
**For Immediate Release**
>From Sistering and the Canadian Women’s Health Network:
Degree of Women’s Homelessness Underestimated, Study Finds
The full extent of women’s homelessness is severely underestimated, a new
study finds. Commissioned by the charitable organization, Sistering, and
funded by Health Canada and the Status of Women Canada, Common Occurrence:
The Impact of Homelessness on Women’s Health highlights homelessness as a
significant women’s health issue that seriously impacts women’s emotional,
mental, spiritual and physical health.
Building on the realization that women’s homelessness has not been
adequately represented in other studies, and that the continuum of
homelessness for women has not been fully understood, researchers sought to
incorporate both ‘hidden’ and ‘visible’ homelessness in their report:
Visible homelessness includes women who stay in emergency hostels and
shelters and those who sleep rough in places considered unfit for human
habitation, such as parks and ravines, doorways, vehicles, and abandoned
buildings.
Hidden homelessness includes women who are temporarily staying with friends
or family or are staying with a man only in order to obtain shelter, and
those living in households where they are the subject of family conflict or
violence. Hidden homelessness also includes situations where women are
paying so much of their income for housing that they cannot afford the other
necessities of life, such as food; those who are at risk of eviction; and
those living in illegal or physically unsafe buildings, or in overcrowded
households.
Researchers also address women’s homeless-specific health concerns,
including the barriers homeless women face in the current systems of
support. The study finds that social and medical services are not fully
responsive to homeless women’s health care issues and needs. The report
includes a number of recommendations that reflect the lived realities of
homeless women’s lives.
Common Occurrence Research Action Report: The Impact of Homelessness on
Women’s Health is available from Sistering.
To interview the study authors contact:
Sistering
Angela Robertson, Executive Director
523 College Street,
Toronto, Ontario M6G 1A8
Email: [log in to unmask]
Phone: (416) 926-9762 ext. 226
Fax: (416) 926-1932
Website: http://www.sistering.org
Mona Dupré-Ollinik, BSW, BA
Coordonatrice de liaison/Outreach Coordinator
Canadian Women's Health Network/Réseau canadien pour la santé des femmes
419, avenue Graham, Suite 203
Winnipeg (MB) R3C 0M3
Tel: (204) 942-5500 ext,/poste 13
Fax/Télécopieur: (204) 989-2355
Toll free/Numéro sans frais: 1-888-818-9172
www.cwhn.ca
e-mail/courriel: [log in to unmask]
TTY 204-942-2806
TTY toll free number 1-866-694-6367
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