Funding for research into homelessness among female veterans

Lawson Health Research Institute. (Reta Ismail/CTV News London)

The federal government is investing more than a million dollars at the Lawson Health Research Institute for a new study on female veterans and homelessness.

$1.2 million will fund the research into homelessness among military women in Canada.

The study's lead researcher said her team will travel across Canada to interview former service women who are experiencing homelessness.

She said it will take four years, developing gender specific policy guidelines for female veterans.

“We've done several projects related to veteran homelessness in the past, but we always found that the women were a smaller minority in those, a very small minority, such that we didn't have adequate data to tease out the gender issues. Very often they've been dealing with sexual trauma. So when the available housing for veterans is a congregate living with a bunch of men or tiny homes with, again, with a bunch of male veterans, it may actually not be appropriate,” said Lawson Assistant Scientific Director Dr. Cheryl Forchuk.