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Press Release - October 17, 2002
**For Immediate Release**
From Sistering and the Canadian Women's Health
Network:
Degree
of Women's Homelessness Underestimated, Study Finds
The full extent of women's homelessness is severely underestimated,
a new study finds. Commissioned by the charitable organization,
Sistering, and funded by Health Canada and the Status of Women Canada,
Common Occurrence: The Impact of Homelessness on Women's Health
highlights homelessness as a significant women's health issue that
seriously impacts women's emotional, mental, spiritual and physical
health.
Building on
the realization that women's homelessness has not been adequately
represented in other studies, and that the continuum of homelessness
for women has not been fully understood, researchers sought to incorporate
both 'hidden' and 'visible' homelessness in their report:
Visible homelessness
includes women who stay in emergency hostels and shelters and those
who sleep rough in places considered unfit for human habitation,
such as parks and ravines, doorways, vehicles, and abandoned buildings.
Hidden homelessness
includes women who are temporarily staying with friends or family
or are staying with a man only in order to obtain shelter, and those
living in households where they are the subject of family conflict
or violence. Hidden homelessness also includes situations where
women are paying so much of their income for housing that they cannot
afford the other necessities of life, such as food; those who are
at risk of eviction; and those living in illegal or physically unsafe
buildings, or in overcrowded households.
Researchers
also address women's homeless-specific health concerns, including
the barriers homeless women face in the current systems of support.
The study finds that social and medical services are not fully responsive
to homeless women's health care issues and needs. The report includes
a number of recommendations that reflect the lived realities of
homeless women's lives.
Common Occurrence
Research Action Report: The Impact of Homelessness on Women's Health
is available from Sistering.
To interview
the study authors contact:
Sistering
Angela Robertson, Executive Director
523 College Street,
Toronto, Ontario M6G 1A8
Email: arobertson@sistering.org
Phone: (416) 926-9762 ext. 226
Fax: (416) 926-1932
Website: http://www.sistering.org
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