What we are seeing with senior women who are accessing homeless shelters is the result of the gender wage gap. We are seeing women who stayed at home to raise their children, women who worked in low-paying jobs and couldn't save money for retirement, women who worked in jobs with no pensions, or women who were married and their partners passed away, so they no longer have an income and can't afford to live in the housing they were in. They find themselves homeless for the very first time.
We need to have a closer look at—and my colleagues have talked about it—building out a continuum of housing for women and deeply affordable housing.
For the women in our shelter who are leaving and moving into housing, even with their pensions, ODSP and OW, would they still require a rent supplement? Without that, they can't afford housing. We need to really invest in deeply affordable housing for all women in our community.