Welcome to the conversation, the programme that brings together two incredible women from around the world with a shared passion and experience, allowing us to explore the insights and knowledge they have.
I'm Dashiani Navanayagam.
Today, something that many of us take for granted, the right to a safe and affordable place to call home.
It's hard to get an exact figure on just how many people worldwide experience homelessness, but the UN estimates that more than 100 million people, people globally, have no housing at all.
Well, joining me are two remarkable women working in the area of housing and homelessness.
Saya Tuonen is the head of research at Wai foundation.
It's the largest nationwide non profit landlord in Finland.
They buy and build their own homes in order to provide affordable rental housing, and they currently own over 19,000 properties in nearly 60 locations.
Saya also co leads the research work cluster of the Housing first Europe hub, and her research interests include impact assessment, women's homelessness and subjective wellbeing.
And joining me from Portugal is Luisa Gomez.
She moved there as a child from East Timor and has lived experience of homelessness.
Louisa is the co founder of Somos, an association created by and for women who have experienced or are currently facing homelessness.
The organization's primary focus lies in advocating for the rights of women experiencing housing issues and those exposed to street violence.
When many people think of homelessness, they have an image in their head of people sleeping rough on the streets.
But that doesn't actually fit the reality for a lot of people who are experiencing it.
Faye, I wondered if you could sort of give us a definition of what homelessness means.
It could look basically anything.
The basic definition is that you don't have somewhere permanent, somewhere safe that you can call home, so you can stay, you said sleeping rough, but it could also mean that you stay in some kind of temporary accommodation or shelters.
You can stay with friends and family and acquaintances, or maybe you live somewhere which is not really adequate for housing.
So that's, I guess, the kind of short definition of homelessness.