Anger, tears, insight, hugs at spirited women’s homelessness forum

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With homelessness the top issue on Londoners’ minds, more than 200 women gathered Wednesday to inspire each other and push for solutions.

“Know that something will come from this and once we have that, we will start working. We will start yelling,” organizer Shelley Yeo said at the end of the day-long All Our Sisters Forum.

“It’s been a day of rage, of insight, of learning, of tears, lots of hugs and friendships. We are hoping to take this forward and make recommendations and set a plan to move forward,”  Yeo, a retired shelter and women’s services leader, told participants.

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The forum focused on women’s homelessness, what’s often referred to as invisible homelessness because many women living unhoused are unseen, bouncing from couch surfing to shelter to survival relationships with men to the street.

The number of homeless people counted by city hall in London ranges from 1,700 to 2,100 at different points of the year, with a third of them women.

The forum was the third of its kind organized by the All Our Sisters network, and perhaps this one came at the most critical time.

Housing, addiction and mental health supports have become national and controversial political issues, as urban and rural communities across Canada struggle to help the vulnerable and keep streets safe for everyone amid rising homelessness.

London released the results of its 2024 resident satisfaction survey Wednesday and 55 per cent of respondents identified homelessness as the most pressing issue facing the community, compared to 19 per cent of residents who identified other issues.

Leaders of the All Our Sisters’ sessions and panels included women who’ve lived with homelessness, researchers, front-line workers and activists.

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Mixed in was some theatre, art and music.

“It has always been our motto: If we can’t have fun and laugh and dance, then we don’t want to be part of the revolution,” organizer Susan Macphail, and a former women’s shelter director, told attendees.

But she urged the women there as well to take immediate action, first by contacting members of city council. Only one councillor showed up at the forum, Macphail said.

“Take this back to city council. Call them up and say, ‘We were here today, where were you?’ “, she said.

Organizations and citizens have to work together to get governments to address factors, such as “punitive” social assistance rates, that feed homelessness, Sister Sue Wilson told the forum.

“The reality of people being unhoused is a moral failure. It’s a failure of us as a city, as a community,” Wilson said. “A safe affordable place to live, a job with a decent wage and safe working conditions, access to health food are basic human rights. These are things that we owe to each other.”

Wilson referenced the rise in clout of ACORN Canada, a grassroots tenants’ organization that has grown to more than 177,000 members and in Ontario successfully pushed for municipal anti-renoviction bylaws. ACORN members were part of a forum panel on how to effect change.

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“Together, we can rattle some chains, as we saw with the wonderful ACORN,” Wilson said. “We know what needs to be done. We’ve said it to each other today and it’s not the first time we’ve heard it.”

Recommendations developed after the forum will be sent back to participants to ensure they capture what was learned, Yeo said.

“Its hard sometimes to keep up the fight, to keep up the energy, but after today I feel energized,” said Sheila Simpson, one of the forum’s leaders and a consultant to non-profits.

“We can’t give up. We have to keep raising our voices and finding ways to have all of our voices heard over and over again, even when it is hard, even when sometimes there are negative consequences. Otherwise we won’t fix anything.”

rrichmond@postmedia.com

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