Last week, Toronto Toronto Public Health released updated data for deaths of people experiencing homelessness in the city for the first six months of 2024–and it found the median age of death among women has dropped to just 36 years of age.
Women and transgender people experiencing homelessness in Toronto are dying at shocking rates, and at tragically young ages. From January to June 2024 alone, 135 people experiencing homelessness lost their lives. The median age at death for unhoused women has dropped to just 36 years—far younger than in previous years (42 in 2022, 43 in 2023) and nearly 50 years younger than women in the general population (85 years).
Over half (58%) of all reported deaths among unhoused women were between the ages of 20 and 39. The leading cause? Toxic drug poisoning, which accounted for 81% of female deaths. Many of these deaths occurred in unsafe and precarious conditions—31% outdoors, 23% in shelters, and 15% in public buildings. Alarmingly, deaths among unhoused transgender people have also spiked since 2022.
These deaths are not isolated tragedies—they are the result of systemic failures that disproportionately push women into homelessness and prevent them from accessing lifesaving supports. Women’s homelessness is distinct, often hidden, and deeply connected to gender-based violence, poverty, and a lack of safe housing options:
- Fleeing Violence: One of the most common pathways into homelessness for women is escaping intimate partner or family violence. Without adequate housing and support, many are forced into precarious and unsafe living situations.
- Hidden Homelessness: Women often avoid shelters and instead rely on informal networks, staying with friends or in unsafe situations to avoid the dangers of the shelter system. This makes them less visible and delays access to critical services.
- Systemic Poverty: Economic disparities leave women—particularly Indigenous women and single mothers—at high risk of homelessness. 28% of women-led households in Canada are in core housing need, and 21% of single mothers raise their children in poverty.
- Inadequate Shelter and Housing Options: Women have far fewer emergency shelter beds available to them—only 13% of shelter spaces are dedicated to women.
These conditions, combined with the toxic drug supply and the increasing criminalization of homelessness, create a crisis where women and gender-diverse people are dying decades before they should. Urgent action is needed—safe, low-barrier housing, harm reduction, income supports, and an end to policies that punish, rather than protect, those most at risk.