53 per cent of people who are homeless in Hamilton are women, new survey shows

Women make up a larger percentage of Hamilton's homeless population than they did three years ago, new city numbers show. 

Findings from a 2021 survey called the Point in Time Connection (PiTC) show women accounted for 32 per cent of people who were homeless in 2018. In 2021, that number increased to 53 per cent.

The survey, which is coordinated by the city's housing services division and the Coalition of Hamilton Indigenous Leadership, involved talking to people at emergency shelters, drop-in programs, community agencies and outdoors. 

From Nov. 15 to 19, workers surveyed 545 people who were homeless. That's a 38-per cent increase over 2018, when 338 people were surveyed. 

The results come as the city committed to spend $950,000 each year on a new shelter "focused on addressing the unique needs of women, Indigenous women, trans-feminine, trans-masculine, and non-binary community members experiencing homelessness," the city said in a release. 

Medora Uppal, director of operations with YWCA Hamilton, said the numbers not only represent the rise in women experiencing homelessness, but the city catching up to underrepresented statistics.

"For years [there] has been a need, there's an underrepresentation, and so there's a lot of women who have been homeless who are being inadequately or underserved," she said.

Uppal acknowledges the city has taken intentional steps to ensure the point-in-time count — now in its third year — is accurate. But the results are still limited to the number of people survey takers can reach over just a few days.

"We know that there's been an under representation," Uppal said. "We know that the number is higher than what's been reported previously. What we don't know is how much the growth there is because of the under representation."

Trying to keep up with demand

Uppal said despite the YWCA's best efforts in expanding services and adding beds, it still hasn't been able to meet the needs of the women in the community.

The agency has seen 552 women access service with nowhere to go since the beginning of the pandemic, she said.

"Our overnight emergency shelter at YWCA Hamilton (Carole Anne's Place) has seen, on average, 22 new women experiencing homelessness each month, totalling 269 new women between February 2021 and February 2022."  

Uppal said the lack of places who will receive women who are homeless is one reason the numbers are increasing. 

"Even if they're on the street, [women are] choosing locations that hide them and keep them safer, so they keep hidden, and then this reliance on couchsurfing and relying on acquaintances and strangers to help them for the night."

Need more support for mental health, substance abuse issues

Uppal said she is "pleased" that the city's count has generated conversation around women and homelessness.

"It also disheartens me that we wait for this kind of quantitative data that is just really so hard to get to, and that we wait for it before we can before we address the need."

Uppal said besides creating affordable housing, the city must address the complexity of the situations of some women.

"There are other women who need more than just the affordability of housing. They need more support in their lives, because they dealt with significant trauma, extended histories of poverty and violence … We see mental health issues, the substance use. That puts them at risk. That needs to be better supported."

In the release, the city said it's building 155 new affordable housing units through the federal government's Rapid Housing Initiative. It'll finish those units by the end of 2022, it said.

77 people say pandemic was a factor in their homelessness

Here are some other highlights from the survey:

• A majority of people surveyed (51 per cent) were adults between the ages of 31 and 49, compared to 39 per cent in 2018. 
• Most people surveyed reported staying alone. 
• 23 per cent identified as Indigenous or as having Indigenous ancestry. 
• 10 per cent of those surveyed said they identified as LGBTQ.
• 77 people said their most recent housing loss was related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• 40 per cent reported having a chronic illness or health condition, a small drop from 45 per cent in 2018. 
• The top three reasons respondents gave for their most most recent housing loss: not having enough income, landlord-tenant conflicts, and unfit or unsafe housing conditions.