As Canada’s housing crisis deepens, we’ve submitted our recommendations to FINA, calling on the federal government to take action to uphold the right to housing for women, Two-Spirit, trans, and gender-diverse people.
Canada is in a housing crisis — and for women, girls, and gender-diverse people, that crisis is invisible, life-threatening, and far too often ignored.
The Women’s National Housing and Homelessness Network (WNHHN) is calling for a shift in federal housing investments toward equity, safety, and rights-based approaches. In our recent pre-budget consultation submission to the House of Commons Finance Committee (FINA), we outline five urgent, evidence-based recommendations that would close critical gaps and begin to address the systemic denial of housing rights to women and gender-diverse people.
While governments focus narrowly on chronic and visible homelessness, they continue to overlook the hidden and gendered realities of housing precarity: staying in unsafe relationships to avoid the streets, couchsurfing to keep children, or engaging in survival sex just to find shelter. These experiences — disproportionately affecting Indigenous women, single mothers, migrant women, and gender-diverse people — are not counted in official homelessness definitions, and as a result, they are left out of policy and funding decisions. Read the full submission here.
Our 5 recommendations to the federal government:
1. Establish a Gendered Homelessness Stream under Reaching Home
Invest $50 million annually over 8 years to create an Indigenous-governed Gendered Homelessness Stream that provides trauma-informed, culturally safe housing supports for women, Two-Spirit, trans, and gender-diverse people.
2. Develop an Enhanced GBA+ Framework for Housing
Create a gender-based analysis tool specifically for housing development and ensure its consistent application — with leadership from lived experts and community organizations — to guide land use, housing construction, and funding decisions.
3. Increase Funding to the Urban, Rural and Norther Indigenous Housing Strategy by $7 Billion
Strengthen the Urban, Rural, and Northern Indigenous Housing Strategy, delivered by NICHI, with an additional $7 billion investment — ensuring that Indigenous women and gender-diverse people equitably benefit from housing funds and capacity-building resources.
4. Revitalize the National Housing Strategy with Gender-Based Goals
Align the National Housing Strategy with Canada’s human rights obligations under the NHS Act by establishing concrete goals and timelines to end homelessness, improve outcome tracking, and prioritize those most in need — especially women and gender-diverse people.
5. Allocate 40% of New Affordable Housing to Women and Gender-Diverse People
As the federal government works toward its goal of building 500,000 new housing units annually, ensure that at least 40% are deeply affordable and designated for women, Two-Spirit, trans, and gender-diverse people — addressing the urgent shortage of safe, accessible housing.
We have received endorsements from these organizations for this submission: Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies (CAEFS), Ending Sexual Violence Association of Canada, Fédération des Femmes du Québec, the National Indigenous Women’s Housing Network, National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL), and the National Right to Housing Network.
The federal government has a responsibility — and a legislative obligation — to realize the human right to housing. Our recommendations reflect a clear path forward to address the hidden housing crisis faced by women and gender-diverse people across the country. This budget cycle, the time for gender-blind policies is over.
Let’s make visible what has too long been ignored.
Have your say too by August 28!
There is an opportunity to tell the federal government what your priorities are for Budget 2025: make a submission to the pre-budget consultations that are open right now. Let’s demand better, click here.
Send a letter, paper or fill out the questionnaire by August 28!