ABSTRACT
This study draws on interviews with homeless women living in an emergency homeless shelter located in Greater Toronto. Using institutional ethnography as a method of inquiry, this study explicates the broader lineages of administrative and governmental entities that not only mediate and control women’s everyday experiences but that also mediate their access to health care services. Through an in-depth examination of women’s first-hand experiences accessing health care services in Toronto, this study examines the institutional practices or rules of governance that mediate relations between homeless women and institutional organizations. The everyday work of basic survival consumes a significant portion of homeless women’s everyday activities. For the mothers interviewed in this study, basic survival work included negotiating pre-natal and post-natal intervention, seeking support after sexual and physical assaults, and managing blood-borne diseases such as HIV/AIDS.
