Project Willow Research Findings and Their Impact on Cambridge
In 2022/2023, YWCA Cambridge collaborated on an important research and advocacy project called Project Willow. One of the products of this collaboration was a report titled Don’t Tell Them You’re Homeless: Experiences of gender-based violence among women experiencing homelessness in Waterloo Region. The report engaged 61 participants through interviews and a survey. Most of the women engaged were connected to or had experienced using formal emergency support services, including emergency shelter.
The report uncovered a number of alarming trends and further articulated the complex experiences women have trying to ensure their safety while they attempt to navigate the community, meet their basic needs and secure housing. The report, which explores the experience of gender-based violence along a continuum of severity and frequency, found that 92% of participants had experienced gender-based violence at least once weekly, 79%, experienced it at least twice weekly, and another 44% experienced it daily. Further, it was found that these experiences were happening all throughout the community in various locations and alarmingly at the hands of many different perpetrators. This created a layered experience of trauma for women experiencing homelessness that becomes exacerbated when considering Cambridge, a known service desert for women experiencing homelessness. Below is a summary of the report’s findings.
Co-ed shelter
Project Willow research found that 73% of participants avoided using co-ed emergency shelter services because of safety concerns. This is exacerbated in Cambridge, where historically the only emergency homeless shelter option for women has been co-ed. However, currently this shelter is operating as a men’s only shelter due, in part, to safety concerns for women brought forward from this research. Without shelter options that are accessible and safe we are asking women to decide between leaving their supports and community behind in order to access a shelter in another community or slip into hidden homelessness where they will be largely unsupported.
Read about how YWCA Cambridge is working to bring a women’s shelter to Cambridge
Forgoing basic needs
Project Willow research found that 65% of participants avoided accessing the services or supports they needed (food, clothing, medical help, etc.) because they were concerned they would experience violence and/or they would run into an abuser. In Cambridge, there is the additional reality that there is often just one service option, meaning the risk of running into an abuser is exponentially higher. In these situations, women must weigh whether the risk is worth the service. When faced with this decision, the majority of women did not take the risk and instead went without the support/services they needed.
Safety rituals & community attitude
In absence of safe shelter and other services/supports, many women developed their own safety rituals to try and enhance their safety and prevent violence from happening to them. These efforts took two stark approaches. The first being, stay near people because they can help you, and the second being, stay away from people because they can hurt you. In Cambridge, homelessness has become a politicized experience, giving rise to rhetoric that is harmful to women experiencing homelessness and arguably refuses to acknowledge individuals’ humanity, despite there being a growing movement among those who seek to affirm the right to housing for every person. This divide amplifies the risk of violence that could come if a woman approaches a stranger for help, leading many women to be without any concrete safety rituals that include bystanders.
Project Willow casts a grim shadow on the realities that women in Waterloo Region face as they navigate their experience of homelessness. However, in this, we cannot forget the negative impact that a lack of services and the polarizing community attitude in Cambridge has, and how it acts as a barrier to helping women move towards stability.