Open Letter to Minister Robertson following his response to the Neha Review Panel

Housing Minister Gregor Robertson tabled his response to the Neha Review Panel in Parliament on April 17, fulfilling his legislated obligation to respond to the panel’s reports within 120 days in both the House of Commons and the Senate

As intervenors in this right to housing process, the National Indigenous Women’s Housing Network and the Women’s National Housing and Homelessness Network have written to Minister Robertson in an open letter. In it, we call on Minister Robertson to commit to ending homelessness for women and gender-diverse people.

Read Minister Robertson’s letter to the Neha Review Panel, which received an early copy on March 24: click here (en Francais)

Read our open letter to the Minister below:

The Honourable Gregor Robertson 
Minister of Housing and Infrastructure 
House of Commons  
Ottawa, Ontario, 
K1A 0A6 

April 24, 2026 

Subject: Responding meaningfully to the Neha Review Panel reports and committing to end gendered homelessness

Dear Minister Robertson,

We write on behalf of the National Indigenous Women’s Housing Network (NIWHN) and the Women’s National Housing and Homelessness Network (WNHHN) as the intervenors who initiated the review process in 2022 through two human rights claims to the Federal Housing Advocate, which led to the Neha Review Panel on the right to safe, adequate and affordable housing for women, Two Spirit, Trans, and gender-diverse people, and the government’s duty to uphold this right. 

We appreciate your response to the Neha Review Panel and your acknowledgment of the housing crisis facing women, Two-Spirit, trans, and gender-diverse people in Canada. As your letter notes, the Government of Canada recognizes both the barriers these communities face and the need for continued action to realize the right to adequate housing.

The Neha Review Panel process represents one of the most significant participatory human rights engagements on housing in recent years. The Panel heard from over 500 individuals and groups through written submissions, in-person gatherings in community, in prisons, and in other gathering spaces—complemented by public virtual oral dialogues. This effort has created a critical public record and a real-time snapshot of how housing rights violations are impacting women and Two-Spirit, trans, and gender-diverse people across Canada.

Importantly, this process met people where they are. Together with our partners, we supported the collection of testimonies from lived experts: women, girls, Two-Spirit, trans, gender-diverse people—Indigenous women and elders, women with disabilities, and women of colour with diverse life experiences. We went into shelters, into transitional and supportive housing spaces, into neighbourhoods across Canada—such as the Downtown Eastside in Vancouver, in Toronto, in Edmonton, in the North, and in Nova Scotia, to name a few. There, we heard from tent community residents, also known as encampment inhabitants. We worked directly with women and gender-diverse people who are incarcerated, ensuring their experiences—often excluded from policy conversations—are reflected in the official record. These are the realities of housing precarity in Canada, and they cannot be understood from a distance.

This work was carried by communities across the country. Through our Community Champion program, we trained over 50 Community Champions from coast to coast to coast. These Champions supported people with lived experience in preparing and submitting testimony, helping to remove barriers to participation in a complex federal process. Nearly 200 individuals with lived experience contributed directly or through group submissions. In-person gatherings were held in cities across Canada—creating spaces that were accessible, trauma-informed, and grounded in trust.

These submissions are not only stories, they are evidence. They came from allies, from civil society, housing providers, scholars, lived experts, researchers, and grassroots organizers who have been documenting, researching, and responding to this crisis for years. This body of work builds on decades of advocacy and research but also delivers a recent snapshot of what is happening on the ground. It deserves acknowledgment, but also action.

We must be clear: repeatedly asking women and gender-diverse people to share data, research, and deeply personal experiences to justify what is already well known is systemically exhausting and places an ongoing burden on those navigating the stress and trauma of housing insecurity without meaningful resolution.

The evidence is not lacking. It has been gathered, shared, and formally documented through this process, reinforcing an already substantial and well-established evidence base.

While we will take up the Government’s offer to participate in further engagement and roundtables, the purpose of these engagements must be clearly defined. Engagement cannot be an end in itself. It must be directly tied to implementation, with clear timelines, measurable outcomes, and accountability mechanisms.

In the absence of clear implementation pathways, cycles of stakeholder engagement risk delaying meaningful action in the face of ongoing housing instability and preventable loss of life.

We also note that the response to the Neha Review Panel, as required under the National Housing Strategy Act, is intended to be part of a broader public accountability process. Given the scale and significance of this work, we would have expected greater recognition—not only in writing, but through formal debate and visibility when Parliament is sitting. This is fundamental to the intent of legislating the right to housing in 2019: that these findings be meaningfully considered, publicly scrutinized, and acted upon.

As regards Indigenous women, Two-Spirit, trans, and gender-diverse Indigenous people, there is a much older principle at work, and it speaks to the obligation of the federal government towards Indigenous peoples. It is this: “the highest honour of the Crown is its fiduciary obligation to ‘Indians’.”  The fiduciary obligation is in addition to the human right to housing.

While your response outlines important investments and ongoing initiatives, it falls short of making the commitments necessary to meet the urgency of the crisis. We need clear timelines, measurable targets, and stronger definitions for success. We need to know how and when the Panel’s recommendations will be implemented—and how progress will be transparently tracked.

Most critically, we need a clear and unequivocal commitment to end homelessness.

This commitment must apply to all people in Canada, but it must also explicitly address the disproportionate and distinct impacts of homelessness on women, Two-Spirit, trans, and gender-diverse people. Canada’s National Housing Strategy and the National Housing Strategy Act recognize that housing policy should target those most affected by housing need, including Indigenous peoples, survivors of gender-based violence, and gender-diverse people. Without this specificity, existing inequities will continue to be reproduced.

The work of the Neha Review Panel does not end here.

As noted, further engagement is anticipated. However, much of what comes next is being carried into the renewal of the National Housing Strategy and the implementation of initiatives such as Build Canada Homes. It is essential that these processes do not dilute the findings of the Neha Review Panel but rather operationalize them.

A gender-based analysis framework must be clearly evidenced in decisions, funding allocations, and program design as part of the Government of Canada’s commitment to Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+). Housing investments must be demonstrably reaching those most in need, particularly women, gender-diverse people, and Indigenous peoples—recognized priority populations who experience disproportionate housing need. Without this, commitments to equity risk remaining aspirational rather than transformative.

The Neha Review Panel has provided a roadmap. The evidence is clear. The voices have been heard.

What is required now is action—grounded in accountability, guided by human rights, and measured by whether homelessness is meaningfully reduced and ultimately ended.

We remain ready to work with you to ensure that this moment leads to lasting, systemic change, and welcome the opportunity to discuss implementation.

Sincerely,