Making the invisible, visible
The Coalition to End Women’s Homelessness exists to surface a phenomenon that is too often hiding in plain sight.
Around 100,000 people were identified as being severely housing deprived in Census 2018. Just over 50% of these people identified as women, which stands out internationally (Canada sits at 38% for example).
What’s more, the issue impacts women across each stage of life. Otago University’s He Kāinga Oranga research indicates that the majority of our unhoused women are Māori and many have four or more children.
Aging Welling National Science Challenge research by CRESA indicates that the fastest-growing cohort is women over 55.
And yet we have no strategy or funding that specifically addresses the unique and complex context for why our women are unhoused. Info goes here……
Image shows a woman with a Māori arm tattoo and a disposable glove handing a plate of food across a bench to another woman, who is preparing to put sauce on it.
Why are women’s experiences of homelessness so hidden?
Every person’s experience is unique, but some common factors mean women are more at risk of being invisible.
The housing system has been designed for the 'norm' - which is usually a single man sleeping rough. In practice, this means we are funding beds per unit. Women always lose out in this scenario. Why?
Because, as Dr. Fraser’s research shows, they are more likely to have caregiving responsibilities, and so need a different type of flexibility, a different level of privacy, and a different approach to health and wellbeing support services than the single bed night approach to funding for emergency and transitional housing enables.
Without any funding ring-fenced for women-only housing and support services, there are not enough places for women to go where they feel safe as most will avoid the street as much as possible. So, many women return to abusive relationships or couch surf in unsafe places as their only alternative. There are no systems in place to monitor and report on this type of homelessness, meaning it is hidden from decision-makers and people designing funding and intervention programs.
Insecure tenure - or the risk of getting kicked out of a rental - is a higher risk for women, especially older women. This is because older women are more likely to have financial insecurity at the end of their lives and cannot absorb the shock of a squeezed and expensive rental market. Aotearoa New Zealand is not alone in this - the disproportionate impact of insecure tenure on women is something that has been identified by the UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing as being a worldwide phenomenon.
Is anyone taking action?
There are great organisations on the ground providing safe houses, women’s-only transitional housing, and ‘wrap-around’ support services.
One example is Auckland City Mission who run a Tuesday night ‘wāhine dinner’ for any woman who needs some food and a safe space to be. The voluntary effort is shared between Te Miringa Trust, a group of women who support wāhine experiencing homelessness, and wāhine living at the Mission’s kaupapa women-only Māori service, Te Whare Hīnātore.
Read more about the wāhine dinner and the work of Te Whare Hīnātore.
This work is essential but it is hampered by a piecemeal approach to funding which is uncertain for housing providers and causes distraction and overwork for staff in a sector already under strain.
What is the Coalition doing?
At the Coalition, we aim to create a peer network of housing and service providers working for women so that they can share stories, ideas, expertise and work together to advocate for change.
We are pushing for change in four key areas:
Gender analysis of all of our housing policies, especially our key plans.
Research and evidence, to improve official statistics and data gathering and close the research gap.
Funding, of the type and quantum required to address women’s holistic needs - no matter their age.
Housing and services designed by and for our diverse communities, with a focus on redress for wāhine Māori.
Visit our website to learn more about our work and to sign up for our newsletter. We’d love you to be a part of our movement.
Nāu te rourou, nāku te rourou, ka ora ai te iwi. With your food basket and my food basket the people will thrive.
