Read our recommendations to the federal Standing Committee on Finance (FINA) on what’s needed to address gendered homelessness in the upcoming fall budget
As Canada prepares its next federal budget, the Women’s National Housing and Homelessness Network (WNHHN) has submitted a written brief to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance (FINA).
Our submission, Investing in Gender-Responsive Housing Outcomes, lays out what it will take for the federal government to meaningfully address the housing crisis as it is experienced by women, gender-diverse people, and their families.
Because the reality is this: the housing crisis is not gender-neutral. Women and gender-diverse people are more likely to experience hidden forms of homelessness—staying in abusive relationships to keep a roof overhead, couch-surfing, or engaging in survival sex for shelter. They are chronically undercounted in official data, overlooked in policy design, and underserved by a system that was not built with them in mind.
With the current National Housing Strategy set to expire and a new framework on the horizon, this is a critical moment. Here is what we are calling on the federal government to do.
Our Recommendations
1. Revitalize the National Housing Strategy (NHS) 2027-2037 to better reflect Canada’s National Housing Strategy Act and, in doing so, commit to ending homelessness, low-income housing need, as well as setting clear definitions, timelines and goals.
2. Commit to implementing the Neha Review Panel recommendations and realizing the right to housing for women and gender-diverse people in Canada.
3. Ensure that the Urban, Rural, and Northern Indigenous Housing Strategy is grounded in For-Indigenous, By-Indigenous solutions developed in close partnership with Indigenous housing providers and knowledge holders.
4. Ensure that Build Canada Homes (BCH) functions as a rights-based, equity-driven national housing delivery system that guarantees deep affordability, advances gender and Indigenous equity, and is accountable for achieving the goal of eliminating homelessness.
- Embedding an enhanced Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+) approach informed by Indigenous knowledge and co-developed with women and gender-diverse people with lived experience of homelessness and housing insecurity, to guide housing-related decision-making and funding.
- Allocate a minimum of 40% of all affordable and deeply affordable housing units to women and gender-diverse people.
5. Maintain and stabilize funding for Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE) to ensure adequate funding for the violence against women (VAW) shelter and transition house (TH) sector, as well as core community-based, feminist, survivor-serving organizations.
The federal government has an opportunity—and an obligation—to get this right. The renewal of the National Housing Strategy, the ongoing implementation of Build Canada Homes, and the call to action from the Neha Review Panel all converge at this moment. Half-measures and vague commitments are not enough.
We are calling for concrete plans, clear timelines, and real accountability.