Headlines about homelessness can be overwhelming. They tell a story that feels hopeless and daunting. Across our country, but also right here in our neighborhood, the number of people experiencing homelessness is increasing. As the Executive Director of the city’s largest emergency shelter for women and gender diverse people, I know homelessness is complex.

I see the answer to homelessness in embracing its complexity — and that means recognizing that gender-specific challenges require gender-specific solutions. When we fully understand how homelessness affects women and gender diverse people differently, we can build responses that truly work. When we embrace the complexity of homelessness, we also embrace the humanity of people living it.

This year for International Women’s Day, I think of all the women and gender-diverse people at Cornerstone who need a safe, affirming place to land. I see the complex ways that they become homeless and remain in the shelter system. Every day, I see the courage it takes to start over after violence, displacement, or crisis. I see the barriers that stand in the way, particularly for women and gender diverse people.

There are some undeniable truths about our work. Women and gender diverse people who are racialized experience homelessness at higher rates compared to their white and cisgender sisters. They are more likely to experience systemic racism in all areas of life: housing, employment, and healthcare. That is a piece of the complexity that we need to understand and address. There are many other layers of complexity, and this is only one of them.

So, this International Women’s Day, I’m calling on our community to turn your compassion into commitment and action. Let’s embrace the complexity together. We can all do tangible things that make a difference.

Firstly, you can call on politicians to ensure organizations like Cornerstone have sustainable investment in order to address the complexity that is homelessness. Cutting funding and simplifying services is not the way out of this.

Secondly, we all have to have hard conversations with people in our lives. We can create a big impact through small conversations. At a dinner party years ago, I called out a problematic comment from a guest. Six months later, I got a phone call from that guest’s partner asking my help to flee her violent relationship. She had no one else she could talk to but she knew I would be a safe person. She never would have called if I hadn’t said anything.

And finally, get involved. When things are daunting and scary, we have a tendency to look inwards - to want to protect ourselves. To keep things small and simple. I promise you that it feels better to say or do something than it does to sit and wallow in the difficulty of solving homelessness. Volunteer, fundraise, or do a food drive in your workplace for organizations that spark your passion for supporting women.

This International Women’s Day, the theme is Balancing the Scales. Let’s be forceful in our commitment to ending homelessness, to having tough conversations, and for getting involved in our community. We don’t get out of this problem through disengagement.