Cara Loverock
Northern News Services
Published Monday, November 19, 2007
YELLOWKNIFE - Northern women are at an alarmingly high risk of becoming homeless, according to the first pan-territorial study on the subject.
The Demographics
Sixty-six women of various cultural backgrounds participated in a series of focus groups to build a profile of women at risk of homlessness in the NWT.
One-third of homless women in the territory had completed high school and at least half of those have some college or university education.
At least 80 per cent of NWT women have children, about half of the children of these women are in someone else's care.
Although the study could not determine an accurate, figure it is estimated there are 500 women living homeless in Yellowknife alone. Using that estimate it would point to a territory wide rate of 1,000 homeless women.
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'You Just Blink and It Can Happen: A Study of Women's Homelessness North of 60'. a report based on a compilation of findings from three studies conducted in the NWT, Yukon and Nunavut on women and children who are struggling with homelessness.
Released Wednesday by a coalition of six women's groups, the study was funded through the Homelessness Secretariat with the federal government and was budgeted at $151,000 for all three territories.
It found that due to a number of factors women across the territories are finding themselves homeless or what is called 'hidden' homeless - living in an unsafe or unhealthy environments with no option to leave.
According to the NWT study, spearheaded jointly by the YWCA and the Yellowknife Women's Centre, factors leading to homelessness for women include fleeing violence, lack of affordable housing, low literacy rates and extreme levels of trauma, among others.
Chief Keyna Norwegian with Liidlii Kue First Nation in Fort Simpson said that the issue of hidden homelessness is a major problem in the community. "You don't see people actually sleeping in the streets or so forth like that," said Norwegian,
"There are mothers with young children that had a very difficult time finding any sort of housing. And they were living with their sister for a little while and moved to their aunt's and their uncle's and so forth."
Fort Simpson does not have a shelter or any resources for people struggling to find housing or women who are dealing with abuse, she said.
"One of the concerns we had was women who are in abusive relationships and they feel there is no where for them to turn. We don't even have a safe house set up for them."
Norwegian said in the smaller communities, particularly where there are fewer than 100 people, a woman in an abusive relationship may leave for a period of time, but if she decides to come home it's very hard to hide from her spouse because of the size of the population. "So there's really no safe place for them, especially in the smaller communities. I find that same thing in Fort Simpson, even though we have 1,200 people, everyone knows who everybody is and there's really no safe avenue for these people," said Norwegian, "It seems to me it happens quite frequently."
She said Fort Simpson and many of the smaller communities in the NWT urgently need resources for people in terms of counselling, shelter services and housing availability.
Victoria Methben, a family violence support worker in Hay River, said that the amount of women coming into the shelter varies and some nights they are filled to capacity, especially with winter weather. "There's a lot of drugs and alcohol,"said Methben, "That's what I think a big factor is."
Methben works at the Family Support House, a place for women and children fleeing abuse, which offers shelter and referrals for counselling.
"There's definitely issues with housing here. Anybody that wants to come up here it's hard for them to find housing. I think if a woman wants to leave an abusive relationship there's no housing available, so it's almost like forcing them back into the same relationship," said Methben.
Arlene Hache, executive director of the Centre for Northern Families in Yellowknife, said that women are at a higher risk than men for homelessness for a number of reasons.
"Men are still the higher earners, and women generally end up with children. Women are still, in the North, the family member that's responsible for looking after children, elders," said Hache.
The NWT report also noted that women in the North are eight times more likely to go to a shelter due to violence at home, compared to the rest of Canada. "And that's only reported (violence)," said Hache, "So you know that with the unreported, you're looking at an epidemic really, in the North, of violence."
Another issue contributing to the homelessness of women, is the misdiagnosis and treatment of addictions, when the real problem is mental health.
"For example, some of the women who stay in the shelter that we run, they have a psychiatric problem. Some of them hear voices and see things, and they are largely all treated like they have an addiction problem, which they really don't," said Hache.
"They're not offered appropriate treatment."
She said a lot of it also ties into the cultural breakdown, specifically in reference to residential schools, in which so many First Nations people experienced extensive abuse and trauma.
As well, the housing authority being the only housing provider creates a massive problem, said Hache.
"The housing authority does not provide security of tenure, meaning that, particularly in Yellowknife, for example, they don't provide long-term leases. They're the only landlord that doesn't have to."
She said the housing authority should end the practice of providing a short-term lease and then evicting people, calling it a human rights violation.
The study, which in the NWT was spearheaded and funded by the National Research Program of the National Homelessness Initiative, suggests that what is needed is a national housing strategy which would implement proper support resources for the homeless, as well as community based, family support services.
