Women and housing. What then? What now? What next?

On October 5-6 2000 the conference at Harbour Centre in Vancouver Canada focused on the theme of women and housing. The participants stressed the need to continue to talk about the issue of women and housing since thousands of women cannot afford housing. This implies that the housing market had not worked for women. The conference recognized the needs to change the way people are housed and provide more affordable houses. With womens groups working hard with efforts geared at meeting the needs of women issues are raised regarding the delay and failure to provide appropriate housing for women. In addition both cultural and economic elements were important in resolving these issues. Moreover the underlying issue that needs to be addressed was the gender-based problem. In response the British Columbia Womens Housing Coalition agreed to represent womens voices and promote the gender awareness development in housing planning and practice.