There are many ways in which women can become homeless. This article examines the situations for those women who are discharged from institutions such as hospitals, mental health facilities and jails.

The Mayor’s Task Force on Homelessness report states, “Many people … are homeless because they were discharged from institutions such as hospitals and jails without proper community support.” This statement is supported by organizations serving the homeless and by people who require community services.

Ase Hallgren is the Program Manager of Accommodation, Information and Support (AIS), an organization that provides housing and support to people with mental health issues. She thinks that the institutions and community programs need to work together.

“There is a serious lack of discharge planning from hospitals and jails,” says Hallgren. “They have never been good at discharge planning. They still don’t understand that discharging women to hostels is very bad for their health. For example, if a woman requires medical attention, it is difficult to give her the help she needs, or if she has mental health issues and is put in a situation where women are suicidal, it could be very detrimental to her recovery,” she explains.

Hallgren goes on to say that mental health is a serious issue, because unlike many physical illnesses, mental illness is often difficult to diagnose. A woman who is mentally ill may enter [a hospital’s] emergency, but if she exhibits no outward signs of illness she may be discharged too early, explains Hallgren. But the more professionals who are available to speak with the woman, the more likely she is to be recognized as needing help, and to receive the necessary assistance.

For those who are discharged from the hospital and require additional medical care, there are services that provide home care. But homelessness is once again an issue. Camille Orridge, the Executive Director of Toronto Community Care Access Centre, an organization providing home health care and support says, “There are systems in place to provide health services in the home, but they need the home.” Lack of affordable housing is the real issue. “Without a home, a woman has no place to keep her medication. If she loses her health card, she can’t get it back,” says Orridge. According to Orridge, once a woman has entered the hostel system or finds herself on the street, it is difficult to keep track of her. This can aggravate any health problems that require regular medication and make it more difficult for her to access any necessary services.

Women being discharged from correctional institutions have to face the challenge of finding housing while dealing with the stigma of having committed a crime.

Organizations such as The Elizabeth Fry Society serve as places of transition for women who have been in prison. Before a woman has served her complete sentence, she may be released to an organization such as Elizabeth Fry. “Women who are eligible for day parole and who are not considered a risk to themselves or society can be released to Elizabeth Fry,” says Nzinga Walker, Residential Supervisor at The Elizabeth Fry Society. Here they can start to prepare themselves for re-entry into society by looking for work and housing. But this is not necessarily an easy transition.

“When the women are coming out of jail, people want references and don’t want to give them a vacancy,” says Walker. “Most are first time offenders who lost their housing. Their kids get scattered. Once the women are out they are given their children back. But they need time to find a job and a place to live.”

While The Elizabeth Fry Society is an organization that attempts to facilitate the successful reintegration of women into the community, lack of affordable housing continues to present challenges. “When a women is discharged from a facility, she needs a place to stay,” says Walker. “On the street there is a high risk she could re-offend.” Walker goes on to explain that if a woman does not have a place to go, the institution may keep her until she can find housing, rather than release her to the streets. She may end up staying with family or friends, but this is often only a temporary arrangement, and she may soon find herself in a hostel or on the street. “If she can’t find housing, she may go back to prostitution, re-offend or go back to her friends or partner who may have been the cause of her conflict with the law,” she says.

For women who have been released from hospitals, mental health institutions and correctional facilities, the lack of housing is a barrier to recovery and reintegration into the community. One solution is, of course, more funding for housing and social support programs. Another idea is to make better use of existing programs by promoting greater communication and co-operation between the institutions and community support services.

“The programs in place could be working together more,” says Walker. Hallgren agrees. “[The institutions] have to do more work holistically with the community in mind,” she says. “There needs to be a mutual responsibility that we know what happens to people, an advocate within the hospital setting to make sure that these people have somewhere to go.”

But despite existing programs, the problem of how to reintegrate women into the community who have been ill or incarcerated always seems to come back to one issue: lack of affordable housing. Those who are serving these vulnerable people should be getting together behind the root problem which is homelessness, says Orridge.