News
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Sept 7, 2023- Axios Miami: National Women’s Shelter Network holds first conference in Miami
https://www.axios.com/local/miami/2023/09/07/national-womens-shelter-network-conference-miami
Homeless shelters for women and children are being deluged with people in need, according to the National Women’s Shelter Network (NWSN). The network formed during the pandemic to help staff from about 175 shelters nationwide share resources.
Why it matters: The number of people in the U.S. experiencing homelessness is up 11% this year from 2022, the NWSN said in a statement.
NWSN held its first-ever conference this week in Miami, a city where it’s becoming increasingly difficult for people to secure housing and escape homelessness.
Zoom in: Lotus House in Overtown is the largest women’s homeless shelter in the nation, housing about 250-260 adults and 265 children each night.
Women typically stay for a little over six months, but that figure has been creeping up because of a lack of affordable housing, inflation and other factors.
What they’re saying: “There’s so many people calling. We don’t even keep a waiting list,” Lotus House founder Constance Collins tells Axios.
“We’re having to make decisions about who is the most vulnerable. Is it an elder, 70, 80 years old, on the street? Is it a woman who’s about to give birth? Is it a mother who’s over at the hospital with an infant that cannot leave the hospital without having a home for her baby?”
What we’re watching: The NWSN outlined a seven-step roadmap for ending homelessness in America during its conference.
The ambitious plan calls for funding more women’s homeless shelters, permanent housing for extremely low-income people, health care in shelters, childcare resources, trauma-informed care and more.
Collins says her group outlined the seven steps to end homelessness “so that people stop saying it can’t be done and start talking about how to do it.”
Sept 7, 2023- Local 10: Superstar Gloria Estefan joins national movement to combat homelessness among women and children
MIAMI – Leaders from women’s shelters across the country convened in Miami on Wednesday.
They’re working to tackle the nation’s homelessness crisis, and a South Florida icon was there to bring awareness to the cause.
“We need to help these women, these children,” said superstar singer Gloria Estefan. “We need to help the homeless in whatever way we can. We’re seeing that it’s becoming the next plague, really.”
Members of the National Women’s Shelter Network, representing nearly 200 shelters and programs from across the country, gathered in Miami for their first ever conference.
“In the wake of the pandemic, and decades of failed social and public policies, homelessness is reaching epic levels across our nation, impacting, most severely, women and children,” said Constance Collins, NWSN President and Founder of Lotus House.
Collins said more than 1 million women, and more than 2.5 million children, experience homelessness each and every year across the country.
She calls it a “growing crisis.”
“We as a group are the last and final resort,” said Collins. “The final safety net from the streets for countless vulnerable women and children in communities across our country and we need help.”
The goal is to map out real-world solutions, things like funding, readily available affordable housing, access to mental and physical health care, educational and childcare services and post-shelter support.
The initiative, as evidenced by Estefan’s involvement, is already gaining star-powered support.
“There is unity, strength in unity, and that’s what they’re doing, they’re banding together,” said Estefan. “People that are working on the front lines, boots on the ground, in different cities, banding together to see how they can make things better for women and children, all across the nation.”
Sept 7, 2023- Local 10: Superstar Gloria Estefan joins national movement to combat homelessness among women and children
MIAMI – Leaders from women’s shelters across the country convened in Miami on Wednesday.
They’re working to tackle the nation’s homelessness crisis, and a South Florida icon was there to bring awareness to the cause.
“We need to help these women, these children,” said superstar singer Gloria Estefan. “We need to help the homeless in whatever way we can. We’re seeing that it’s becoming the next plague, really.”
Members of the National Women’s Shelter Network, representing nearly 200 shelters and programs from across the country, gathered in Miami for their first ever conference.
“In the wake of the pandemic, and decades of failed social and public policies, homelessness is reaching epic levels across our nation, impacting, most severely, women and children,” said Constance Collins, NWSN President and Founder of Lotus House.
Collins said more than 1 million women, and more than 2.5 million children, experience homelessness each and every year across the country.
She calls it a “growing crisis.”
“We as a group are the last and final resort,” said Collins. “The final safety net from the streets for countless vulnerable women and children in communities across our country and we need help.”
The goal is to map out real-world solutions, things like funding, readily available affordable housing, access to mental and physical health care, educational and childcare services and post-shelter support.
The initiative, as evidenced by Estefan’s involvement, is already gaining star-powered support.
“There is unity, strength in unity, and that’s what they’re doing, they’re banding together,” said Estefan. “People that are working on the front lines, boots on the ground, in different cities, banding together to see how they can make things better for women and children, all across the nation.”
![](https://thenwsnconference.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/image008-762x1024.jpg)
Sept 7, 2023- YAHOO! Noticias: Gloria Estefan se une a pedido de atacar la crisis sanitaria de los “sin techo” en EEUU
https://es-us.noticias.yahoo.com/gloria-estefan-une-pedido-atacar-213743801.html
Líderes de casi 200 albergues para mujeres pidieron este miércoles ayuda para atacar la “crisis nacional de salud pública” que constituye en Estados Unidos la creciente población de las personas “sin techo” (“homeless”), un urgente llamado al que se ha sumado la cantante Gloria Estefan
“Toda ayuda suma”, dijo la intérprete cubanoestadounidense, quien fue una de las panelistas de la edición inaugural de la conferencia anual de la Red Nacional de Albergues para Mujeres (NWSN, por sus siglas en inglés) que hasta este viernes se celebra en Miami, en el sur de Florida (EEUU).
Estefan puso de relieve que un 80 % de las mujeres que se hallan en albergues son víctimas de violencia de género, un problema que se ha agravado en los últimos años, que son “tiempos difíciles” y que producen ansiedad y estrés entre las personas.
Por su parte, la presidenta de esta red de refugios para mujeres sin hogar, Constance Collins, señaló que el problema supone una “crisis nacional de salud pública” que alcanza “proporciones épicas” y que afecta a prácticamente todas las comunidades de Estados Unidos.
Collins, quien es también fundadora en Miami del albergue para mujeres Lotus House, manifestó que las últimas cifras que maneja la NWSN reflejan que cada año más de 1,2 millones de mujeres y 2,5 menores de edad “experimentan desamparo” en Estados Unidos, y que al menos 1 de cada 30 niños del país podrían quedar sin hogar, la mayoría de ellos menores de 10 años.
“Me parece inconcebible, pero la falta de vivienda se ha vuelto una norma para los niños de nuestro país, que es la nación mas rica y probablemente una de las mas poderosos del mundo”, se lamentó Collins.
Agregó que la violencia de género es la causa principal que lleva a las mujeres a quedarse “sin techo” y en el desamparo, pero no la única.
Entre los otros “factores contribuyentes” que han cobrado fuerza en los últimos años destacó la cada vez “más persistente” escasez de vivienda asequible en el país, un problema que ha derivado para los albergues del país en una “demanda inasumible”.
“Los albergues están sufriendo para poder abrir las puertas a más personas y poder poner comida en la mesa”, aseveró, tras lamentar que las políticas públicas dirigidas a la falta de vivienda asequible han fallado y en muchos casos hasta han colaborado en fijar las “raíces sistemáticas” que dan pie a las personas “sin techo”.
Pero no son las únicas razones. El aumento del coste de vida y la cada vez más difícil atención sanitaria, en especial cuando se trata de enfermedades mentales, son otro elementos a considerar a la hora de buscar soluciones efectivas.
Margaret Mitchell, de YWCA, en Washington, en ese sentido abogó por la urgente necesidad de elevar el salario mínimo a 25 dólares la hora en pos de “ingresos dignos”.
“Necesitamos ayuda”, invocó Collins, quien en una rueda de prensa dio a conocer una propuesta de hoja de ruta con los pasos necesarios para acabar con el desamparo en Estados Unidos.
Entre las medidas urgentes destacó la necesidad de incrementar los fondos, tanto públicos como privados, incluso los destinados a “reparaciones y mejoras capitales” en la red de albergues para mujeres que existen en la actualidad.
También se refirió a la necesidad de “un lote de viviendas permanentes, fácilmente disponibles, verdaderamente asequibles en todo nuestro país para personas de ingresos extremadamente bajos”.
La conferencia de la NWSN reúne en Miami, que como se destacó hoy está considerada entre las tres ciudades menos asequibles de EEUU, a líderes de albergues y expertos en la materia para a lo largo de cuatro días compartir prácticas en materia de desarrollo y operaciones de refugios, así como para identificar soluciones escalables.