In all provinces and territories, women, girls, and gender diverse peoples experience some of the most severe forms of housing need. In order to better understand these challenges, the Women’s National Housing and Homelessness Network (WNHHN) decided to undertake an extensive scoping review of available evidence on women’s homelessness in Canada. The Canadian Observatory was hired to complete this literature review, guided at each step by the expertise of WNHHN members, including members with lived experience of homelessness.

This review explored evidence on the unique causes, consequences, and experiences of homelessness and housing precarity for women, girls, and gender diverse peoples in Canada. We relied on the expertise of our partners at Keepers of the Circle, an Indigenous Hub operated by the Temiskaming Native Women’s Support Group in Northern Ontario, to analyze the research on Indigenous women's experiences.

The review triangulated multiple data sources, including: scholarly literature, government reports, policy briefs, fact sheets, parliamentary committee proceedings, statistical data, and deputations made to all levels of government (published between 2000 and 2019).