WNHHN calls on the federal government to fund, build, and listen in order to end the cycle of gendered homelessness once and for all.
Women and gender-diverse people experiencing homelessness in Canada are largely invisible — not because the crisis is small, but because the system wasn’t designed with them in mind.
They remain in abusive relationships to maintain shelter, couch-surf to keep families together, and engage in survival sex for a roof over their heads.
This is hidden homelessness, and it is a crisis hiding in plain sight.
The Women’s National Housing and Homelessness Network (WNHHN) has submitted a brief to the Standing Committee on the Status of Women (FEWO) on the role and capacity of women’s shelters and transitional housing to support women and girls in Canada.
The evidence is clear and the cost of inaction keeps growing:
- 97% of VAW shelters report it has become harder for survivors to find housing.
- 52% of second-stage shelters operate at capacity more than once a week.
- In Calgary, 35% of women were unable to access a shelter bed when they needed one, and 82% of all turn-aways at Indigenous shelters were women, most often simply because shelters were full.
These numbers reflect a system stretched well past its limits. Emergency shelters are extending stays beyond policy guidelines to cope with demand, only to face higher turn-away rates and growing waitlists. Women who are turned away often return to dangerous situations because there is nowhere else to go.
The problem doesn’t end at the shelter door. Point-in-Time Counts show women make up 29% of Calgary’s, 41% of Toronto’s, and 31% of Vancouver’s visible homeless population. But these figures still dramatically undercount the real scale of gendered homelessness because the system was built to see what’s on the street, not what’s hidden behind closed doors.
Our four recommendations to FEWO:
1. Establish stable, multi-year, core-operational funding for women’s shelters, emergency shelters, and transitional housing across Canada — and maintain and stabilize funding for violence against women (VAW) programs under Women and Gender Equality (WAGE) Canada.
2. Ensure federal funding for women’s shelters and transitional housing is gender-responsive, culturally appropriate, and trauma-informed — with wraparound services that centre Indigenous women, Two-Spirit, trans, and gender-diverse people and their families.
3. Allocate at least 40% of affordable and deeply affordable housing units for women, Two-Spirit, trans, and gender-diverse people through Build Canada Homes — with clear GBA+ implementation timelines and measurable targets to end homelessness and housing precarity for these groups.
4. Create ongoing advisory mechanisms that directly consult with lived experts during federal housing and homelessness policy discussions — and ensure that their input meaningfully shapes policy development, implementation, and evaluation.
A one-size-fits-all approach to housing cannot solve a crisis that is fundamentally shaped by gender, race, and systemic inequity. Canada needs a federal housing strategy that treats women and gender-diverse people’s safety and stability as a priority — not an afterthought.
The shelter system is at a breaking point. The solutions are known. What’s needed now is the political will to act — and the commitment to keep the voices of those most affected at the centre of every decision.
Read the full submission, Strengthening Canada’s Housing and Shelter Response for Women and Gender-Diverse People: submitted to FEWO in June 2026 by the Women’s National Housing & Homelessness Network.