Wednesday, January 31

Nunavut's homeless women target of report

A new report on Nunavut's homeless women will call for better ways to track the problem when it's released in February, researcher Rian Van Bruggen says.

The report by the Qulliit Nunavut Status of Women Council, titled Little Voices of Nunavut: A Study of Women's Homelessness North of 60, will highlight the dire situation all across the territory, Van Bruggen said in an interview on Monday.

In Iqaluit alone, there an estimated 150 women, many with children, without a place to call home, she said.

"The hidden homelessness is something that is so pervasive here in Nunavut, and the housing crisis, as well … makes it so difficult to get a home," Van Bruggen said.

"So a lot people just, you know, sleep together in one house or they sleep in a closet or they sleep on a couch and then the next night they sleep on the floor, and that's what makes it so difficult as well to actually determine the extent of homelessness."

Van Bruggen said she interviewed about 100 homeless Nunavut women for the study.

CBC News story

Related story: Forgotten homeless sleep in tents in frigid North

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