The Canadian Centre for Housing Rights (CCHR) partnered with the Women’s National Housing and Homelessness Network (WNHHN) and the National Right to Housing Network (NRHN) on a project funded by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) Solutions Lab. Started two years ago, the project aimed to develop and prototype national shelter standards that adopt a rights-based and gender-sensitive approach to help improve emergency shelter service delivery.
In Canada, women and gender-diverse people are more likely to have trouble finding a safe and secure place to live, and disproportionately live in core housing need. For those who experience homelessness, they are often denied access to emergency shelters that are operating over capacity and are struggling to meet demand due to chronic underfunding and an increase in housing need. Additionally, certain policies, rules and practices in emergency shelters may lead to people being turned away, separated from their children or unable to access supports.
These issues can have devastating impacts on women and gender-diverse persons who are in need of shelter services, and present barriers to realizing the right to housing. It is critical that we change the way that emergency shelters are designed so that they align with a rights-based and gender-sensitive approach to housing.
To help address these challenges, this project explored together with lived experts, advocates and shelter providers seeks to identify what shelters in Canada could look like if they were gender-sensitive and aligned with the right to housing. To transform emergency shelter service delivery for women and gender-diverse people, we developed and prototyped national shelter standards that use a rights-based and gender-sensitive approach. These standards can help to better meet the needs of women and gender-diverse people in accessing emergency shelter services.
The process
The development of these Shelter Standards has been a deeply collaborative effort, aiming to create a robust framework that addresses the complex unique challenges faced by women and gender-diverse individuals accessing emergency shelters across Canada.
At each step of the development process, a diverse range of key actors, including people with lived experiences, service providers, human rights experts, and advocacy groups, were extensively engaged. This inclusive approach ensured that the standards reflected a comprehensive understanding of the genuine needs and dynamic realities faced by those accessing emergency shelters.
The results
These Shelter Standards are grounded in a comprehensive framework that merges international human rights principles with a Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+) approach. By drawing from international treaties, human rights frameworks, and best practices, the standards aim to set a high bar for emergency shelter operations while remaining sensitive to the unique needs of diverse gender identities and expressions.
The Standards aim to:
- Increase access to supports and services for marginalized women and gender-diverse people who are being excluded by these systems;
- Create alternatives to shelter policies and practices that deepen housing precarity for women and gender-diverse persons; and,
- Prevent harm (including intergenerational harm) and rights violations linked to shelter policies and practices related to gender (e.g., transphobia).
Review Panel Submission
These Shelters Standards will also become a joint submission to the upcoming National Housing Council’s review panel. On May 11th, 2023, the Federal Housing Advocate announced the second human rights-based review panel under the National Housing Strategy Act (NHSA) on the Government of Canada’s failure to prevent and eliminate homelessness amongst women and gender-diverse people, particularly those who are Indigenous.
This review panel process will give people with lived experience of gender-based homelessness and housing precarity—as well as civil society allies—an opportunity to share their experiences and solutions and hold the Government accountable in a way that was not possible before.
This will be the second human rights-based review panel conducted in Canada (the first of which is still ongoing on the issue of the financialization of purpose-built rental housing. These review panels are new oversight and human rights-based accountability mechanisms under Canada’s right-to-housing legislation, the National Housing Strategy Act of 2019.
Acknowledgements
This project is generously supported by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) Solutions Lab.
We would also like to recognize the invaluable contributions of members of the National Advisory Committee of this project, and the many organizations and individuals that have lent their expertise and experience to the development of these standards.