In 2023, a national census of women rough sleeping in England - the first of its kind - was undertaken. The report that followed showed a significant ‘gender bias’ in the official government statistics and that there may be up to nine times as many women sleeping rough as counts suggest.
In the same year, Simon on the Streets was one of several organisations that helped facilitate a women's rough sleeping census here in Leeds. The results painted a similar picture: women facing homelessness yet hidden from view, unable to access support and unrepresented in any real way.
But why are women facing homelessness so undercounted? What are we doing wrong? Let’s examine the issue.
Why are women at a disproportionate risk of homelessness?
The answer is that there are so many reasons—housing instability after a relationship breakdown and domestic violence being just two. Then there are the socioeconomic factors, such as the fact that women are at a higher risk of struggling financially than their male counterparts, the rising cost of living, as well as the well-documented gender pay gap. All of these things have a potential part to play when it comes to women being at risk of homelessness.
Women: the hidden homeless
Whilst the government does have a definition of sleeping rough, it doesn’t include the ‘hidden’ spaces where women may shelter. Spaces such as:
- Buses and trains
- Squats
- A&E waiting rooms
- Finding shelter with strangers
If the above places are not included in the government's definition of rough sleeping, it’s very difficult to get an accurate idea of the scope of the issue, let alone recognise the individual experiences of women so that they can get the tailored support they need.
Why are women facing homelessness at risk of being hidden from view?
When it comes to homelessness, women face many unique challenges. In the first instance, there’s an undeniable link between homelessness and domestic violence. Women may find themselves without a place to call home as a result of fleeing from domestic violence. In some cases, however, women find themselves experiencing domestic violence as a result of homelessness. Either way. It’s a vicious cycle that’s hard to escape.
Those women facing life on the streets may also become the victims of other forms of gender-based violence. Trafficking, for example, and sexual abuse and exploitation.
Then there are those women who are mothers, trying everything they can to meet their children’s needs. In this situation, women are likely to feel apprehensive about seeking support for fear that their children will be removed from their care.
Ultimately, these are just some of the things that might leave women in fear of accessing the help that they so badly need, ensuring that they remain out of sight, unsupported, and uncounted.
The Leeds census
The definition of rough sleeping was widened during the Leeds census, and the survey included considering the above locations. The insights it provided were eye-opening, painting a devastating picture of just how undercounted women are when it comes to their experience of homelessness.
Key findings included:
- 56% of women had slept rough the night before taking part in the survey
- 24% had slept rough in the last 3 months
- 12% had slept rough in the last week
Of the women surveyed, when asked about the places they had stayed over the last three months, 26% gave no less than four different locations. Heartbreakingly, the second most common response to this question (after sleeping rough) was ‘walking around all night’.
Based on these responses, it’s no surprise that women are far harder to reach.
What can we do?
The numerous organisations involved in both surveys have put forward several suggestions for ensuring a more accurate assessment of the number of women sleeping rough and using that data to make a change.
Suggestions include:
- The government leading the women’s rough sleeping census and ensuring that each local authority has the resources to conduct it every year.
- Create homeless policies that are gender-informed.
- The government providing more resources to ensure more emergency accommodation.
- All data collected about rough sleeping to be subject to an equalities impact assessment. This way, the experiences of women and other marginalised groups would be counted.
For too long now, women have been overlooked as part of the hidden homeless. Nobody currently knows the true extent of this issue - there’s simply no way to tell how many women are facing homelessness at any one time. In light of these surveys, the hope is that this will start to change, and that women will not only be counted, but also supported.
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