Better Off in a Shelter? A Year of Homelessness & Housing among Status Immigrant, Non-Status Migrant, & Canadian-Born Families

One significant segment of Canada’s unhoused population is families with children. Within this group are many immigrant and refugee families. Homelessness and shelter life impose great stress on mothers and their children. For immigrants who are also undergoing the stress of adapting to a new environment and a new culture, which may include learning English, the stress is compounded. A better understanding of the way in which discrimination contributes to homelessness among immigrant and refugee families with children can improve public policy and programs for immigrant families, thereby reducing family homelessness. The study focused on Toronto, where almost half of all immigrants settle after their arrival in Canada. Toronto is also one of the highest-cost housing markets in Canada and the city where newcomers face the greatest affordability problems, and therefore the greatest risk of homelessness. This report contains the results of a panel study that followed 91 women-led homeless families divided into two groups: (1) homeless immigrant and refugee families, and (2) Canadian-born homeless families. Each woman was interviewed three times. The first interview was retrospective and focused on the women’s housing pathways and life experiences up to that time. The second was shorter and investigated changes in their circumstances since the previous interview. The third, completed about a year after the first interview, was an in-depth discussion of their lives and housing situation since the first interview, to identify changes and the reasons for those changes. In particular, we asked about perceived discrimination and other sources of individual and family stress. We expected to find notable differences between the immigrant and Canadian-born women; but during the first analysis, there appeared to be few notable differences. However, when we broke down the results for the immigrant women into those who had achieved permanent resident status and those who were still without status, certain trends began to emerge. We found that women without status − whether they are temporary workers awaiting resolution of a refugee claim, or living “underground” − are extremely vulnerable, often living in conditions of deep poverty, housing instability, danger, and exploitation. They have limited access to social assistance, health care, and other social benefits, and often rely on under-the-table employment or informal networks to secure housing. For these women, pregnancy and childbirth represent a crisis, making employment impossible, incurring health care costs, and disrupting precarious housing arrangements. Most enter family shelters where they are required to try to regularize their status, although many will not qualify as refugees. Some are deported, while others wait years and spend substantial sums on fees and legal counsel before they and their families can enjoy a life of stability. A second finding is that family shelters, which were intended to function as a crisis intervention of last resort, are in fact functioning as transitional and supportive housing for certain types of families. In particular, the long shelter stays of non-status migrant women suggest that they would be better served by a housing program in which they could live with their children while undergoing the status regularization process. Another group whose shelter stays may indicate a need for a more appropriate residential program is that of mothers involved with child protection services. Some mothers in this study were told by child protection authorities that to maintain or regain custody of their children, they had to leave housing that the authorities considered unsafe. The use of crisis shelters to fill a specific need for high-support, intensively supervised housing for mothers and children at risk suggests the need for targeted services for this group. Finally, we found that in some respects, women were often better off in the shelter than they were in their own homes. Before entering the shelter, the women’s housing was unaffordable, unsafe, inadequate, isolating, or in poor condition. Most women could not afford to provide for a better home or other necessities, and many did not have access to needed services such as childcare, advocacy, and housing search assistance. Unfortunately, for most women, their housing, income, and service access situations after leaving the shelter represent only a partial improvement. Both before and after staying in the shelter, women were faced with difficult trade-offs: dangerous locations in exchange for affordable accommodation, poor housing conditions in exchange for lack of discrimination from neighbours and landlords. Even the shelter itself may represent a trade-off: overcrowding in exchange for food security; regimentation in exchange for safety; lack of autonomy in exchange for access to services. Shelters generally offer an environment of relative safety and stability in which women and children may recover from crises and violence, gain access to services, and search for new homes. At the same time, what does it mean for women and children to be, at times, “better off” in a shelter than in their own homes? What are the ramifications of forcing women to “choose” between autonomy and access to services? What are the long-term prospects for stability for families who leave the shelter, but continue to face the same barriers of poverty, inadequate and unaffordable housing, discrimination, violence, and lack of access to childcare and other services, which caused them to become homeless in the first place? The report concludes with recommendations for service providers, including shelters, social assistance and child welfare authorities, the provincial and municipal governments, and human rights organizations. Perhaps the most important recommendations concern the need for dedicated transitional and supportive housing programs for non-status migrant women and their families, and for women who are involved with child protection agencies. These women and their families often end up in shelters because of a lack of appropriate services to meet their specific needs.

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