Kia ora koutou

Welcome to the Autumn 2024 update for the Coalition to End Women’s Homelessness, our third quarterly update.

Thank you for your engagement with our pānui and our work to date - we have a small but mighty community and we appreciate you all.

Please encourage your friends and colleagues to sign up on our website! We will shortly be updating our website and social media presence, and we aim to make our pānui more regular as we grow our community and our opportunities for engaging with you all.

Look out for our next newsletter in early June!

UPCOMING MAY WEBINAR

Thank you to those who joined us for an engaging and insightful webinar in February with Lily Deane from Housing First Auckland and Gill Brown from Dunedin City Council on local approaches to data and evidence.

Our next webinar will be a discussion with researchers and policy leaders, Dr. Kathie Irwin (Kathie Irwin and Associates), Katherine Foulkes (part of the Aged Care Commissioner’s team at the Health and Disability Commission), and Nikki Hurst (Council of Christian Social Services).

The women will discuss findings from their research into the financial, health, and housing needs of older women and offer their thoughts on how we can adapt policy and practice landscapes to improve housing outcomes for women, including for wāhine Māori who face disproportionate financial gaps when it comes to retirement.

What: Evidence-based approaches to policy design for older women’s housing needs
When: Friday May 17, 2024 01:00 PM-02:00 PM

Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAscOChrDooH9OoY6baHpDEL5rC4iRSFIax

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

NEWS AND VIEWS

We were pleased to raise the issue of our unhoused women across several news platforms on International Women’s Day.

Our project convenor, Victoria Crockford had opinion pieces published in The Post and the Otago Daily Times calling on decision makers to invest in women’s housing.

“As a society, we don’t see women’s homelessness in the same way we see men’s.
This International Women’s Day — tomorrow, March 8 — it’s on us to see them and understand their needs, in our community and the country.
As half of our population of people experiencing homelessness, we must pay attention to what women need if we are to get our overall response fit for purpose, locally and nationally.”

Steering committee member and Chair of the Wellington Homeless Women’s Trust, Jo Cribb had an even more emphatic message on Newsroom about the futility of ‘days’ if we don’t follow them up with action for the 14 women they look out after at their whare and the 50,000 like them around the country living unhoused.

“Women comprise 50 percent of the homeless population yet receive disproportionately fewer of the services designed for the homeless. There is no gender data routinely gathered by government agencies and women get only a passing mention in the country’s Homelessness Action Plan.
That’s why the Coalition to End Women’s Homelessness coalesced and is pushing for change this International Women’s Day in four areas: that gender analysis is done on all housing policies to make sure they work for women and men; government agencies start to routinely gather data on women’s homelessness and housing needs; that specific housing initiatives for women are delivered, and women (especially wahine Māori) are involved in decision-making.
Maybe then we can in good conscious say we #inspireinclusion and #investinwomen this International Women’s Day and can happily pour ourselves another cuppa to celebrate.”

In other news

Rising rents in the Bay of Plenty impacting older women

Forever homes for older women on an old bowling green in Kirikiriroa

Groups working hard to limit the impact of unstable housing on tamariki in Waikato

Women’s Refuge research Safer When, Safer How, reveals invisible risks of family violence