Canada must act: report highlights urgent need for gender-responsive housing policies

A report released today warns that women, Two Spirit, Trans, and gender-diverse people are at risk of being left behind in Canada’s ambitious housing plans, unless the government acts now to address inequities in Canada’s housing system. 

The Neha review panel concludes that Canada is not fulfilling all the conditions to realize the right to housing in Canada in an inclusive, gender-responsive, and human rights-based manner. 

The report comes as Canada commits $13 billion in the recent federal budget to Build Canada Homes, and $2.8 billion to urban, rural and Northern Indigenous housing, underscoring the need to ensure these historic investments deliver equitable, gender-responsive outcomes and help accelerate the realization of human rights, so no one is left behind.  

The panel’s recommendations provide a blueprint for systemic change, urging the Minister to transform Canada’s colonial housing system:

• Support community-led housing

• Address gendered and racialized income inequities

• Ensure access to safe and inclusive shelters for people experiencing homelessness and those fleeing violence.

The review panel found that the lack of safe, adequate, and affordable housing can lead to homelessness, incarceration, institutionalization, and the apprehension of children into foster care – and in the end, these institutional responses cost more than providing housing and services. 

Throughout the Neha hearings, participants described the harms caused by discriminatory systems that exclude Two-Spirit, Trans, gender-diverse, and Indigenous people. They called for community-led solutions, sustained funding, wraparound supports, and policies that uphold dignity, autonomy, and safety. 

Read the report and associated material here.