Just and secure access to adequate and affordable housing The Centre for Community Initiatives (CCI) that enables women tenants to acquire housing for as little as TZS 4 million(about$2,000), which is lower than average house in Dar es Salaam of TZS 40 million(about$23,000). De­spite the various responses, women still face intersecting challenges espe­cially in the face of urban poverty due to multiple roles and identities. Many female-heads(old and young) tend to have larger families compared to men (HBS, 2012). They face more liveli­hood hardships during crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, evictions, and demolitions. Furthermore, house­holds headed by women in Tanzania are more likely to be persistently poor (Aikeli et al, 2021). Women suffer more when housing lacks the basic facilities, such as water, sanitation, and over­all safety and security. Currently, gen­der considerations within government agencies are limited to mainstreaming gender issues in housing, but they of­ten fail to understand how policies af­fect women’s everyday lives. This can be achieved through an intersectional approach to gender that, for exam­ple, disaggregates data by gender age, ability/disability, sexuality, and ethnicity, since some ethnic groups more than others discriminate against women. 6. Recommendations To promote and ensure access to af­fordable housing especially for margin­alized groups, the government cannot abdicate responsibility and leave hous­ing development to non-governmental actors like private sector developers and real estate companies who put profit first. Instead, I argue that the following actions could be taken to achieve these goals: (i) Lobby for the approval of the National Housing Policy (2018) that emphasizes the im­portance of housing in the coun­try’s social and economic devel­opment; (ii) Promote and encourage the view of housing as a holistic and integrated endeavor since improvement of housing leads to improvement of livelihoods; (iii) Creation of platforms or forums for a public conversation on housing with key actors to es­tablish networks, build alliances and garner political will to ad­dress the housing agenda; (iv) By establishing a housing section in local authorities, the government in collaboration with municipalities should encour­85