Downtown Women's Action Coalition

2001 Recommendations
Note:  This page includes the recommendations of the Downtown Women's Action Coalition (DWAC) in abbreviated form.
For a comprehensive listing , click here.

About the Downtown Women's Action Coalition

Visit the Downtown Women's Action Coalition website

Formed in April 2001, the Downtown Women's Action Coalition (DWAC) consists of service providers, advocates and downtown residents whose goals are to improve current housing and services for women and increase the available resources. After successfully obtaining funding for a collaborative effort to provide emergency shelter and support services, DWAC determined that a thorough needs assessment was imperative in order to adequately address the many complex problems that women face. It was this realization that led to the planning, design and execution of the Downtown Women's Needs Assessment.

The purpose of the assessment was not to verify or disprove social theories concerning the causes of homelessness. Similarly, the project's goal was not to determine root causes or contributing factors among the individual respondents (though some such information can be inferred from the data). The survey was designed to identify the current needs and characteristics of women living downtown in order to assist the community in designing housing and programs appropriate to actual needs.

The For Women Only survey was conducted on Saturday, July 14, 2001 with the help of 60 volunteers and over 400 women respondents. Residents of the Skid Row/Central City East community, both homeless and housed, were interviewed. The project prompted overwhelming positive reactions from Skid Row residents, both men and women.

The women surveyed ranged in age from 14 to 79 years. Median age was 44. Largest number of respondents identified as African American (63%) with the next largest categories being non-Hispanic white (13% ) and Hispanic/Latina (11%). The majority of women had at least a high school education or GED. Most of the women (85%) had at least one source of income or public benefit.

The majority of women (60%) had been homeless for one year or more during their lifetime, with 26% homeless for 5 years or more. Median length that women had lived downtown was 2 years. Housing patterns were unstable. 82% had slept in two or more places during the past year; 71% were homeless in that time. About one-third had stayed in a hotel, motel or SRO within the past month.

Over half of the women had no family or friends currently living in the downtown area. While the majority of women reported that they had the opportunity to confide in someone, 16% did not have anyone to fill this role. Many women (39%) had children under the age of 18; only 38% of these had current custody. Of those with custody, two-thirds had their children with them downtown.

42% of the women reported physical health problems during the past year; 29% report permanent physical disability. About 1/3 received a prescription for medication during the past year that they could not fill. The large majority have had a recent Pap smear and/or mammogram. The majority had been tested for HIV and sexually-transmitted diseases; 3.4% report HIV status; 37.4% report incidence of STD. Just over 1/3 of the women reported substance abuse, recovery or both. 41% were affected by mental illness. About 1/4 of these were not currently taking medication.

Below are the coalition's recommendations in abbreviated form.
For a comprehensive listing , click here.