Research Project: Gender-based Violence and Housing Insecurity in Ontario

The Canadian Centre for Housing Rights undertook a research project from 2023-2024 to deepen an understanding of the relationship between gender-based violence (GBV) and housing insecurity in Ontario, as well as to understand how the province’s housing affordability crisis is impacting the housing experiences of survivors.

The new knowledge produced through this project will help inform policy solutions that can improve the housing conditions of survivors of GBV.  

Gender-based violence (GBV) and intimate partner/interpersonal violence (IPV) are pervasive problems in Canada, and there is extensive literature on these issues. However, little is known about the relationship between GBV and housing insecurity. To address this knowledge gap, CCHR examined this relationship and how the housing affordability crisis in Ontario is impacting survivors’ housing experiences in five Ontario communities: Toronto, Ottawa, Peterborough, Thunder Bay and Lanark County.  

CCHR undertook a survey with survivors, interviews with service providers and an analysis of housing market conditions in each community under study to illustrate the ways in which the ongoing crisis of housing affordability in Ontario is impacting the housing security of survivors. 

Our research findings 

Our research report “Nowhere To Go: Gender-based Violence and Housing Insecurity in Ontario” presents a detailed examination of these key findings from our research: 

1. Unaffordable housing is a significant barrier for survivors of GBV. 
2. Survivors are facing a high degree of housing insecurity that originates from their experiences of GBV and is compounded by Ontario’s housing affordability crisis.  
3. Many survivors are either remaining in unsafe housing with their abusers or are returning to live with their abusers after having left, because of a lack of available housing options.
4. Survivors are facing significant barriers to accessing housing in the private rental market, including a high degree of discrimination. 
5. Existing shelter, income and other community supports are inadequate or are not meeting the diverse needs of survivors. 
6. Experiencing GBV and related housing insecurity in smaller and more rural communities poses unique challenges to survivors. 

Our policy solutions

Based on these key findings, CCHR has also developed the following policy recommendations that aim to improve the housing conditions of survivors. Read our report for detailed information about these solutions. 

Affordability measures: 

1. Increase the supply of social housing. 
2. Attach affordability requirements to funding for private sector developers. 
3. Expand programs that preserve affordable housing. 
4. Amend the Ontario Residential Tenancies Act (RTA) to increase affordability. 
5. Address the financialization of housing. 

Provision of services and supports 

1. Fund targeted programs for women and gender-diverse people, while reducing barriers to access. 
2. Expand funding and criteria for the Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit (COHB). 
3. Change the definition of homelessness in current programs to include hidden homelessness and survivors who are unable to leave contexts in which they are experiencing GBV/IPV. 
4. Increase investments in existing services. 
5. Create second-stage shelters in smaller communities. 
6. Increase social assistance rates. 
7. Reduce barriers in accessing social assistance. 
8. Amend the Special Priority Policy (SPP) application process. 
9. Reduce barriers to accessing subsidized housing. 
10. Introduce safe at home programming. 
11. Collect more data in rural and remote areas. 

Address discrimination 

1. Establish monitoring and enforcement mechanisms.
2. Provide no-fee guarantor services to support survivors.
3. Investigate the scope of discrimination. 
4. Restore funding to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. 

Inclusive and anti-colonialist considerations 

1. Increase targeted services for groups in greatest need.
2. Increase accessible housing. 
3. Be alert to the experiences of Indigenous women and gender-diverse people. 
4. Increase investments in For Indigenous, By Indigenous housing. 

Acknowledgements

This project is generously supported by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s National Housing Strategy Research and Planning Fund.

CCHR would also like to acknowledge the contributions of our advisory council, Dr. Carolyn Whitzman, the Canadian Women’s Foundation and the Woman Abuse Council of Toronto (WomanACT), in informing the project’s methods, in carrying out data collection and in advising this research. CCHR would like to thank Dr. Jewelles Smith of Procne Navigation for her support with this research. CCHR would also like to thank the many individuals working in service provision who took time to participate in an interview and distribute the project’s survey as well as the individuals with lived experience of gender-based violence and related housing insecurity who generously shared their time and expertise to participate in our survey. 

This research received ethics approval from the Community Research Ethics Office in Waterloo, Ontario.