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WHAG platform statements

The Women's Housing Advocacy Group invites you to read our platforms addressing the areas in need of the most attention for women's housing needs and homelessness to be solved. We identify the problems, and invite you to be part of the solution.

income security

part of the problem

There is a direct link between a woman's ability to attain, sustain and maintain housing and her level of income. Women's lack of income security and thus vulnerability to housing loss is shaped by both programmatic and systemic variables. Employment statistics reflect continued inequities in the labour force with women still earning 70 cents for every $1 earned by men, while programs such as Social Assistance, have seen real cuts in addition to erosion by inflation.

A number of factors have increased both the depth and breadth of poverty in our province, particularly in Toronto, leading to an increase in homelessness among women and children (Decade of Decline: United Way 2001; Taking Responsibility for Homelessness: An Action Plan for Toronto, 1999). A 22% cut to social assistance along with nearly 10 years with no cost of living increases means that women on benefits receive shelter allowances that cover less than 50% of what is needed to pay average rents in Toronto.

The Ontario Disability Support Program has not received an increase in almost 10 years, leaving Toronto's disabled women more vulnerable to homelessness than their able-bodied counterparts.

Ontario's minimum wage has been frozen at $6.85 for seven years.

This has led to a new group of people known as the 'working poor' without access to benefits such as dental plans, and other coverage increases their vulnerability to cyclical homelessness. This is the fastest growing group of food bank users. An analysis of employment statistics shows that women, especially immigrant women, hold some of the lowest paying, most insecure jobs in our province, regardless of their credentials upon immigration. With no available affordable housing stock, these women are unable to pay market rents with low wage jobs, and find themselves cyclically homeless as they try to feed their children and pay the bills.

The absence of affordable, quality childcare can be an enormous barrier to women who want to enter the workforce. Regulated childcare spaces meet the needs of fewer than 9% of children under 12 in Ontario. Ontario's spending on regulated childcare has declined by more than $160 million since 1995 (in 2002 dollars). Out of a total of more than $266 million in federal funds provided under the Early Childhood Development Initiative over the past two years Ontario has not invested a single dollar in regulated child care.

part of the solution

For women, successfully seeking, sustaining and maintaining housing is tied to the ability to secure an income adequate to raising a family. In the absence of an affordable housing program that replaces stock and keeps pace with growing need, income security becomes a critical element in the determination of who will become homeless and who will not. Long-standing gender inequities and clear evidence of racial inequities in employment conditions compound the vulnerability of women-led households to periodic, cyclical and permanent homelessness. Rectifying these inequities requires co-ordinated responses and comprehensive plans that address inter-and intra governmental responsibilities.

In direct and immediate terms the emergency level response to women's income security as it relates to housing can be addressed in the following ways:

1. Raise the shelter allowance portion of Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support Program to average rent levels in each community.
2. Increase basic needs allowances and index social assistance benefits yearly to the cost of living.
3. Address anti-poverty and equity policy goals by rescinding the claw back of the National Child Benefit Supplement from social assistance recipients.
4. Increase the minimum wage.
5. Facilitate the recognition of internationally trained professionals through leading a process of co-operation between all three levels of jurisdiction and community and professional stakeholders.
6. Stop "creaming" easier to serve clients from employment training lists through Federal Labour Market Adjustment Agreements, and gear more training programs to the most disadvantaged women.
7. Restore the requirement for provinces to recognize the former Designated Groups Policy that addresses the training needs of equity-seeking groups in the development of employment programs
8. Immediately restore regulated childcare funding to 1995 levels.

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about WHAG
Canada: more on the crisis

platform statements:

• sustaining, maintaining a supply of safe housing for women
• income security
• planning and designing housing for women
• support services

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WHAG platform statements

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