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Steps to Change (2): Helping Emergency Sheltered Women with Children

           With the rate of homelessness increasing, so are the homeless women with children. This is one of the most vulnerable forms of homelessness. These women are often crippled with the fear of returning to a home of abuse and threats and being on the streets without money to feed themselves or their children. Many women who experienced domestic violence often end up homeless due to their dependence upon the abuser (McNulty, M. C., Crowe, T. K., Kroening, C., VanLeit, B., & Good, R.2009). Often, they stay with the abuser in order to maintain what is left of the family dynamic or just to put food on the table. Due to raising children, the women often can’t work full time or even find and maintain a job. This furthers their struggle to survive when they are stuck between enduring abuse and losing it all.

             Having children to take care of is a lifelong and difficult task, especially when you have little to no income of your own. Due to this stress, many of these women experience episodes of anxiety, suicidal ideation, and post-traumatic stress disorder. I believe one way to approach this issue is to develop long-term assistance programs to women in this position. While financial assistance is helpful, it often does not provide enough to sustain a comfortable way of life. These proposed long-term assistance programs can assist these women in building their careers while also finding affordable programs or assistants to take care of the children. This is crucial because if the mother has her own set of skills to apply to jobs she applies, she will be more likely to obtain a higher status job and have better financial stability.

            Currently there are programs that assist adults in improving their resumes and skillset. However, it is important to implement a program for women in emergency shelters to work from. Many of these women who flee their abusive homes do not have access to a computer, a printer, or other things we would normally overlook. These are tools that these women should be provided to help them climb their way out of homelessness.

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Provincial Policies for Abused Women

            A research paper was published on analyzing how public policy impacts women who experience intimate partner violence (Burnett C., Ford-Gilboe M., Berman H., Ward-Griffin C., Wathen N., 2015). By relying on Feminist Theory and Giddens’ Theory of Structuration, they wanted to see how policies were written and implemented. The results of the study show that although many policies try to protect women, they actually re-victimize them and leave them open to vulnerability. This is understandable because if women flee abusive households with children and apply for financial assistance, they still encounter difficulties. Some of these issues revolve around not receiving enough money to properly sustain a way of life.

             Programs such as the Ontario Works (OW) Act aim to support low-income families, however the money allotted is barely enough to live comfortably for one person. Now, imagine if that was a runaway mother and her children seeking refuge and stability? These programs do not sufficiently support varying circumstances that these women encounter. Instead, it is usually a set rate given and their finances are highly monitored. Not only do these women not have privacy, they also barely have a place to live and support their families.

           Until these policies are re-evaluated, this problem will continue. Women already deal with gender discrimination and a wage gap. Women from marginalized groups are often racially discriminated systemically and often face barriers to get full access to health care services. Also, women are usually the primary caregiver of children. Shouldering all these burdens, is evident that homeless women fleeing abusive households are in fact systemically oppressed

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Steps Toward Change (1): “Housing First” Initiative

            Canadian statistics show that women are the fastest growing sub-population who experience homelessness (Fotheringham S., Walsh C., Burrowes A., McDonald A., 2011). Often, these women end up homeless to protect themselves from their abusers or due to financial instability. However, there has been an initiative called “Housing First” that has been recently implemented to combat women’s homelessness. This initiative focuses on transitioning women from the streets into housing. While this may have been a good idea at the time, the demand for housing is growing out of control. There aren’t enough beds and space for these women to comfortably live and not enough service providers of health care.

           The Housing First model started using Photovoice which is a research methodology that allows women to freely express themselves. Researchers wanted to understand why women’s shelters are increasing out of proportion and what they can do to control and minimize the number of clients. Photovoice allowed women to reflect on their experiences coping with homelessness and the usefulness of services provided to them.

         I believe this is an extremely useful method to analyze homelessness amongst women. First, this provides researchers with qualitative data which will help in re-evaluating how women’s shelters can improve and expand to provide more beneficial services. Second, it gives these women a sense of autonomy. When they have fled from possibly the worst experience of their lives, they are vulnerable and afraid. I believe that we need to help these women bounce back from their abuse and one way to do that are to give them a voice. It is important to provide these women with a way to vent and express themselves because it helps give them a peace of mind.

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Animation Recommendation: Mitchiko & Hatchin

Plot Summary: Taken place in a fictional area within South America, this is a story about an escaped prison convict named Mitchiko Melandro and her god daughter, Hatchin. Together, both girls scramble through the slums in order to find Hatchin’s father. They often seek shelter in run down motels, clubs, and on the streets to survive.

Why I Recommend it? : This discusses the harsh realities that homeless women face living in the slums and is taken from a person of colour’s perspective.

Homelessness and Mitchiko & Hatchin: Both girl’s experienced physical and emotional abuse from either their family or their partner. For Mitchiko, she was emotionally used and manipulated by her partner, Hatchin’s dad. For Hatchin, her foster family physically beat her, attempted to press a hot iron on her face, and more.

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Black Women Who Want to Find Home in Toronto

         *Names have been omitted due to privacy.*

 As a black woman, I often pay attention to women who resemble me. I look at how they dress themselves, talk, and their careers. Often, black women are expected to be strong and have an unbendable will. However, when are black women allowed to break down and be weak? Where are they able to express themselves without criticism from peers and strangers? A few of my *role models are survivors of abuse and are also black women. They told me their experiences dealing with their partners who often had substance abuse and violent behaviours. These women moved to Canada to start anew and be free from their abusers in the late 90’s.

                                        These women are my family…

             They told me their experiences couch surfing with members of our family and often going to food shelters. When they first arrived in Canada, they culture shock hit them immensely. It was very difficult to make a living as a single immigrant woman coming into Canada  (Bhuyan, 2012). There were many barriers to access necessary services and care centers. I remember one of these women telling me she would often visit food shelters because her paycheck wasn’t enough to cover rent, utilities, and food. For these women, finding jobs was a rough experience and often they worked jobs that they weren’t proud of. They lived off of social assistance to help them scrape by. To me, these women were on the brink of homelessness and should be considered emergency sheltered. They fled their abusers to the point they left the country and had to abandon their immediate family and friends.

            An article by Margaret Little (2015) would define these women as being a form of hidden or concealed homelessness. Although they may have had a roof over their head, they did not reside in safety, often struggled to provide food, and were unsatisfied. This struggle to find secure shelter is a huge concern for marginalized groups who are newly immigrated. Often, they do not have all their papers to be a full Canadian citizen and are barred from many health services.

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Mental Health Services in Women’s Emergency Shelters

            Women’s emergency shelters are meant to give refuge to women who are fleeing from abusive households.  It provides a roof over their head, food, water, and safety. However, I always wanted to know more about how the handle trauma. What kinds of mental health services are provided to these women?  As a psychology major, this was the first thing I wanted to know because mental health plays a huge part in a person’s life. If they are crumbling under pressure and do not have familial support, this can be the onset of many disorders such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and more.

          According to a YWCA article (Tutty, 2015), psychological abuse is almost always a factor used against women. Some of this abuse involves disparaging comments and personalized attacks against that woman’s character. However, often the psychological abuse revolves around threats to their life or to someone close to them. This is especially apparent when children are involved and a lot of women choose to endure the abuse to try to keep their family together. Due to the strain on both their physical and mental health from their abuser, this often results in increased anxiety, suicidal thoughts, and unhealthy practices.

           I personally do not see a lot of advocacy regarding emergency sheltered women’s mental health. Researchers have concluded that those who undergo counselling and assistance had a higher sense of well-being than those who did not (Tutty, 2015). I wondered why this isn’t discussed more often. One of my thoughts is that the demand for psychiatric counselling is high while the amount of practitioners is low. However, another thought is that mental health services have become extremely expensive and privatized. These services could be unaffordable for low income women who desperately need care. A possible solution to this issue would be to have designated mental health practitioners for these shelters that are funded by the shelters themselves.  

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Gentrification and Toronto’s Shelters

           Where do abused women run to when they need help? An easy answer to that would be to say “to their families” or to “crash at their friends”. However, where do these women go if they don’t want to disclose their abuse to those close to them? Unfortunately, the difficult answer is to live either on the streets or in Toronto’s emergency shelters. On the street, women can discretely hide themselves from their partners, but also risk endangering themselves with gangs, prostitution rings, and more. In Toronto’s emergency shelters, the conditions are often poor due to an influx of clients with a lack of resources.

           According to an article on Toronto’s emergency housing program by Kevin Brushett (2007), Toronto has one of the highest rates of homelessness within Canada. A lot of those who are homeless resort to living within emergency shelters located in the slums of the city. One of these slums was formerly known as Regent Park until its recent gentrification. Now, it has become a region that the wealthy reside and keep low income citizens away. What does this do? It corners these homeless individuals (women especially) and coops them in the poorest living conditions due to overcrowding.

          Gentrification is extremely concerning to Montreal, Vancouver, and Toronto’s community as it only worsens homelessness and increases the rate of crime (Centre for Urban & Community Studies, 2008) . For women who are fleeing from abuse, they want to be somewhere safe. If their only options are going back to their worst nightmare and being cooped up in one of Toronto’s worst places to live, it only increases my concern. According the Wellesley Institute (2010) executive summary, homeless women from ages 18-44 have a significantly higher risk of dying. This is due to not having enough resources to properly sustain a healthy living and a lack of space.

          I am hoping change is made to increase the number of shelters available for women fleeing from abuse and to get more government support for resources such as food. However, Toronto seems to be currently dealing with the controversy around allocating their funds to pay for the oversized inflatable duck by city hall. Where are our tax dollars going and why isn’t it doing more to help those who need it?

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/05/30/giant-rubber-duck-toronto_n_16882646.html

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           I found this video when researching women’s emergency shelters across Canada. It shows how women’s shelters are set up to emulate a living environment that welcomes all who join. Personally, I liked that things weren’t too clean or too messy. It added a sense of comfort and homeliness that I would not get if it were too organized and neat. This shelter offers a wellness clinic that tends to women’s psychiatric concerns as well as their physical ailments. Having these services readily available reduces the anxiety and fear of being rushed to a hospital.

            Another thing I liked about this video is that they did not reveal what the outside looked like. This adds a level of security to prevent harm to the women residing in the shelter. On their website, there is a mailing address to their headquarters, but not to the shelter itself. Instead, they provided a phone number and e-mail that women can use to get access to a safe space.

         The Calgary Women’s Shelter offers service 24 hours of the day and serves over 15,000 clients per year. It is evident that this service is much appreciated and necessary to promote women’s wellbeing. However, with that many clients coming per year, I am curious about the quality of service women receive when staying in this shelter and how long they are able to stay. Due to the lack of transparency regarding the duration of their stay, it is difficult to know if these women received the necessary help to be free from their abusers. Thankfully, the website provides some resources women can use to seek further assistance.

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Introduction: Emergency Sheltered Women

              Emergency sheltered: A form of homelessness that is typically temporary. It is a state of being where a person needs to leave their previous residency for safety concerns (Canadian Observatory of Homelessness, 2012).

           This blog has been created as a way to advocate for women who are emergency sheltered in Canada. It will encompass information regarding statistics on violence against women, homelessness amongst women, as well as facts on women’s emergency shelters. Women are much more likely to risk being in danger as well as being hidden from research on homelessness (YWCA Canada, 2012) . Throughout my life, I have known many women close to my family who have experienced partner abuse and did not report it. A lot of these women were afraid to report their abuse because they did not want to endanger their families or the future of their abusive partner. Due to this fear, many of these women fled from their homes and found temporary residency with friends or family. I created this blog as a platform to post various forms of media discussing the importance of having emergency shelters for women running from domestic abuse.

           According to an article from the Homeless Hub, around 30% of those who are homeless are women. This number may be even higher but many cases go unreported due to the stigma attached to them. For many women in Canada, reporting physical or sexual abuse could have life changing impacts on their lives. As such, we need to provide these women more safe spaces and a voice to talk about their experiences. Some of these changes are already in motion such as ShelterNet and Metrac: Action on Violence that offer legal services to advocate for women. There are also help lines that women can call when they are in need of moral support. Most Canadians live within a jurisdiction that implements strategies to reduce homelessness. A lot of these services are offered to all women regardless of ethnicity, religion, and gender orientation. This goal of this blog aims to make change by bringing awareness to what emergency shelters do and how they aim to free women from being tied to their abusers.