This week, an Arctic mass has been moving through Calgary and the city has faced some of the coldest temperatures in almost two years. With daytime temperatures 20 degrees below the average and the nighttime low between -18°C to -24°C have many running to turn up the thermostats. However, imagine if you didn’t have a safe and warm place to call home during these cold nights. Imagine trying to stay warm with holes in your gloves and a jacket that doesn’t keep the chill out. Imagine scrambling to find a place to sleep to avoid the dangerously cold weather and hoping the shelters aren’t full. Imagine being one of Calgary’s 3,222 people who don’t have a place to call home. If you are a women who doesn’t have a safe, warm home you are even more at risk.
Women’s gendered experience with homelessness is unique and is often unacknowledged and unrecognized. As a woman experiencing homelessness, you are at an increased risk of violence, abuse and victimization if you are staying on the streets or in mixed-gender shelters. Women and their families are the fastest-growing segment of the homeless population with violence remaining a major driver of homelessness for women. Despite the fact that the number of people in Alberta staying in emergency shelters is down, Calgary remains an epicentre of homelessness in the province. Calgary represents 60 per cent of the total provincial count which reaches 5373 individuals from a Point-In-Time Count on October 19, 2016. Of those individuals, 25 per cent are women without a safe place to sleep.
Homelessness is not an impossible problem; it is something we can solve as a city and as a county by working towards more affordable and adequate housing. We need to create women-only spaces to improve women’s sense of security and safety. Women-only spaces increase peer support, build a sense of community and provide opportunities for women to build meaningful relationships. When women experience homelessness, they often experience extreme isolation and spaces promoting connection help promote healing.
Programs like YW Calgary’s WER program are essential to serving the needs of women in Calgary, who otherwise would not have a safe place to stay during the winter. Last year, YW’s WER program saw a 55 per cent increase in new clients entering our emergency shelter program with an average of 37 clients staying per night.
