Supporting women
Women experience homelessness differently to men, which is why we have a range of services to support them away from homelessness for good.
Women experience homelessness differently to men. They are much more likely to be ‘hidden homeless’, meaning sofa surfing, living in squats, or sleeping on buses, because it’s dangerous being visible on the street. This can also make it harder to reach them and offer support.
Women experiencing homelessness also often have severe, interrelated and complex problems. These usually stem from domestic abuse and other trauma, which contribute to their homelessness and can make recovery even more challenging.
75,000 women and their families are homeless and living in temporary accommodation. Women make up 60% of homeless adults in temporary accommodation, compared with just 51% of adults in England. The latest figures show that, in England, women make up 13% of people sleeping rough.
Our approach
We aim to create an environment of physical and psychological safety for all the women we support, no matter what service they are accessing.
Our priority is often providing a safe place to live: establishing safety creates a firm foundation for recovery from trauma. We also use our Recovery Approach, which means someone’s personal support plan is rooted in their strengths, experiences – including a practical understanding of their trauma – and goals.
We run dedicated women only services to support women who need a women only environment to feel safe and recover. We also have a wide range of tools and ways of working that support women across all of our services, including mixed provision.
The impact
We work with women at all stages of homelessness, including women sleeping rough, women at risk of losing their tenancy, women living in hostels and those moving into independence. Our aim is always to help them out of homelessness for good.
We ran 13 women only services in 2022. 33% of clients in our services were women and we supported 1,767 women in total.
