Dana Yates, 37, became homeless at age 14 and has struggled with housing ever since. Bernard Weil / Toronto Star ) Order this photoIt is 2016 and Ottawa must ensure its promised national housing strategy includes a “gender lens” that connects women’s lack of affordable housing and homelessness to their lower incomes, longer lives and roles as mothers, YWCA Canada says. “For women and girls, housing, homelessness and safety from violence are interconnected,” says the report being released Monday. Article Continued Below“This is the first opportunity in our history to get a national housing strategy that counts women and girls in and takes a serious look at how housing, affordability and homelessness are lived by women and girls,” said the report’s author Ann Decter. Since eight out of ten single parents are women, they need affordable housing with room for kids.

Source: thestar October 24, 2016 09:00 UTC