WOMEN’ S HOMELESSNESS
ROUGH JUSTICE
The number of women sleeping rough is estimated to be more than ten times greater than the official figures. What’ s more, the measures women take to keep themselves safe are what’ s depriving them of the help they need, hears DDN
A ccording to official government figures, women make up just 15 per cent of people sleeping rough. However, the ongoing Women’ s Rough Sleeping Census launched by the Single Homeless Project( SHP) estimates that there may be more than ten times as many than are identified in the government’ s annual‘ snapshot’ counts.
The report on the third annual census, How do we sleep at night?, was published this summer( https:// www. drinkanddrugsnews. com / ten-times-more-womensleeping-rough-than-officialfigures-show /) with a fourth currently being carried out. The census is based on surveys conducted with women who’ ve identified themselves to outreach teams or other services as having slept rough in the last three months, as well as‘ Local Insights’ meetings where cross-sector services share information.
HIDDEN HOMELESSNESS Conducted across almost 90 local authority areas, the 2024 census found that nearly three quarters of the women surveyed said they’ d slept on the street at some point, with a quarter saying they’ d stayed with a stranger or new acquaintance – clearly placing them at risk. More than a third reported having been in homelessness accommodation prior to sleeping rough, the report says, demonstrating that this‘ continues to be unsuitable’ for women’ s needs.‘ Women are not a minority group within England’ s homelessness population,’ it states.‘ They make up 60 per cent of all homeless adults in temporary accommodation, and hidden homelessness – widely acknowledged to be the form of homelessness predominantly experienced by women – has never been explored or quantified by the government.’
Women sleeping rough will try to stay out of sight for obvious reasons, but this comes at a cost.‘ It keeps them invisible to the very services that should be there to help’, the report says, with many local authorities also requiring people to be‘ verified’ as sleeping rough in order to access support. Women will frequently move between rough sleeping and‘ sofa surfing’, while other survival tactics can include remaining with abusive partners or providing drugs or stolen goods to secure a place to stay. While the average life expectancy for women in the general population is 83, for women who sleep rough it’ s a shocking 43.‘ Rough sleeping is very scary as a woman alone,’ one respondent told the researchers.‘ If finding a group to sleep rough as a woman, you have to offer something for safety – money, drugs or sex’, while women who may be withdrawing from drugs are even more vulnerable, the report adds. More than 40 per cent of the women surveyed in the census had accessed drug and alcohol services.
NATIONAL ISSUE The census project began when SHP partnered with the University of York to research women’ s hidden homelessness in one London borough. This‘ showed overwhelmingly that women’ s homelessness was being under counted’, SHP’ s assistant director of system change( women’ s homelessness and multiple disadvantage), Lucy Campbell, tells DDN. SHP then joined with a range of
Dinendra Haria / Alamy
14 • DRINK AND DRUGS NEWS • OCTOBER 2025 WWW. DRINKANDDRUGSNEWS. COM