Justice for Girls presentation to the Senate Committee on Human Rights
September 2006

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak to you today.  My name is Asia Czapska and I am here representing Justice for Girls, an organization I have worked in for almost 7 years, since its’ beginning.  JFG is an organization through which women and girls fight for the rights of teenage girls who live in poverty and who are homeless in Canada.

I have come here to speak to you about how girls become homeless, or end up on their own and living in inadequate conditions in Canada, and what the government needs to do to enhance and enforce their human rights and dignity.  Many international documents including Article 27 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child say that children have the right to an adequate standard of living, and yet many girls live in poverty in this country.

When girls leave home or are told to leave, they can easily become homeless.  From the outset I need to say that sexual abuse is one of the primary reasons for girls’ homelessness.  Girls leave home to escape violence, like women often leave home to escape violence.  Police and child welfare authorities in Canada continue to disbelieve girls when they report sexual abuse and sometimes tell girls to “go home”.  The perpetrators of abuse are rarely criminally charged.  We believe that if authorities committed to removing men who commit violence from the home, many girls would not become homeless in the first place.

First Nations girls who leave non-Aboriginal foster homes because of alienation and racism are likely to become homeless and lesbian girls who are kicked out or leave their homes because they are not accepted by their parents may become homeless.

Once they are on their own, girls are given a disgracefully inadequate set of choices.  The children’s ministry may tell them to go home, they may be told to get adult welfare (image what it is like for a 16 year old girl try to live on her own on $525/month), they may be put into a group home or foster home where young men are also living.  It is not safe, and does not bring about equality, to put girls who have experienced male violence into homes with young men, who sometimes also abuse and exploit them.  Many girls, left with few choices, live with older exploitative men so that they have a place to stay.  Sometimes these men exploit girls through selling them in prostitution.  Girls often use drugs like heroin and crack cocaine to try to cope with extreme violence and poverty.  And then, when they are living in severe degradation and oppression, the state imprisons them- in prisons and locked child welfare facilities to protect them from drug abuse and the older men who exploit them.   Moreover, in BC girls are imprisoned in mixed gender youth prisons and are supervised by male guards: both of these things mean that girls are experiencing sexual harassment and violence inside prison walls. 

Despite Canadian government rhetoric that it cares about “at risk” youth, girls don’t get the housing and support they need to live in dignity.  Almost no money is spent by governments, provincially nor federally, for programs specifically for marginalized girls.  When we recently asked the government of BC for information on housing for homeless girls we received a stack of papers about beds for youth exiting prison and on probation and bail, and one review of BC youth shelters which showed that youth shelters can be unsafe for girls.  Short term and long term supported housing specifically for girls, which is safe and easy to access, simply does not exist in BC nor most other provinces in Canada.  There are very few safe places for homeless girls.  Recently, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recommended that Canada give special attention to the difficulties faced by homeless girls and take all necessary measures to provide them with adequate housing and social and health services.

Youth shelters are a shameful and inadequate response to violence against girls and girl homelessness.  We would never support mixed gender shelters for women leaving abusive men, why do expect girls to live in unsafe youth shelters and group homes and foster homes?  It is not enough to provide housing for homeless youth, the government needs to provide housing specifically for homeless girls, especially for young moms.

Girls’ are not safe when government programs for youth are gender neutral.  In fact, mixed gender housing affects girls in a discriminatory way because it is unsafe for girls.

We would like the provincial government of BC and other provincial governments to gender their youth programs and policies so that there are specific programs, especially housing, for homeless girls.  This would bring girls closer to the realization of equality.