Recommendations for safe and affordable housing for Indigenous women in the DTES

Build social housing and transition homes

Recommendation 99: Provide Indigenous women with individualized options for housing that supports choice and self-determination. For example, women should have the option to live in or outside of the DTES, for abstinence-based or harm reduction-based buildings, for women-only or housing that includes men, for housing that is with or without increased security and guest rules.

Recommendations for safe and affordable housing for Indigenous women in the DTES

Build social housing and transition homes

Recommendation 100: Open more transition homes and low-barrier shelters that are for Indigenous women only.

Recommendations for safe and affordable housing for Indigenous women in the DTES

Build social housing and transition homes

Recommendation 101: Fund more Indigenous housing outreach workers and advocates.

Recommendations for safe and affordable housing for Indigenous women in the DTES

Build social housing and transition homes

Recommendation 102: All supportive housing and shelter providers should prioritize Indigenous women’s participation in service delivery, as well as prioritize Indigenous women as peer workers, staff, and managers.

Recommendations to end criminalization of Indigenous women in the DTES

Access to justice

Recommendation 159: Fund an Indigenous legal clinic in the DTES that can support Indigenous women in all legal matters and provide regular legal education workshops.

Recommendations to end criminalization of Indigenous women in the DTES

Access to justice

Recommendation 160: Increase Indigenous women’s Access to justice by extending funding to guarantee all Indigenous women have access to full legal aid for criminal and civil legal matters including family, criminal, mental health, and poverty legal aid.

Recommendations to end criminalization of Indigenous women in the DTES

Access to justice

Recommendation 161: Gladue is a legal requirement. All levels of government have an obligation to ensure that all Indigenous women in the DTES have timely, appropriate, and high-quality access to Gladue reports when involved in the criminal justice system.

Recommendations to end criminalization of Indigenous women in the DTES

Access to justice

Recommendation 163: Expand funding for community-based and court-based victim services.

Recommendations to end criminalization of Indigenous women in the DTES

Access to justice

Recommendation 164: Prioritize funding to train Indigenous legal advocates, court workers, and lawyers including through increased funding and capacity for Indigenous court worker programs and initiatives under the Indigenous Justice Program.

Recommendations to end criminalization of Indigenous women in the DTES

Access to justice

Recommendation 165: The Federation of Law Societies of Canada, law schools in Canada, and the Canadian Judicial Council must provide mandatory training to all law students, lawyers, and judges on the legacy of residential schools, Canada’s obligations under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous legal traditions, Gladue principles, and the systemic failure of colonial legal systems to uphold justice for Indigenous people.