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Date: November 25, 2024 Mon
Time: 9:10 pm
Time: 9:10 pm
Results for homeless women
1 results foundAuthor: Women's Resource Centre Title: Promising practice from the frontline: Exploring gendered approaches to supporting women experiencing homelessness and multiple disadvantage Summary: This scoping research is a collaboration between Homeless Link and the Women's Resource Centre (WRC) to explore gendered support available in England to women who experience homelessness and multiple disadvantage. Summary of key findings -- The factors that services are seeing most frequently Survey data suggests that women experiencing multiple disadvantage are presenting to a broad range of community services including those that are designed to support women with multiple disadvantage and services that are not. Over two thirds of the survey respondents (69%) reported they had seen an increase in the numbers of women with multiple disadvantage presenting to their service over the last two years. When asked to report the types of multiple disadvantage that women present to services with, the findings demonstrate that services are supporting women with a broad range of experiences: - All the survey respondents said that they 'sometimes' of 'often' support women who experience homelessness - 97% of respondents reported that they are either 'sometimes' or 'often' supporting women with experience of mental ill-health - 94% of respondents reported that they 'sometimes' or 'often' support women with problematic substance use - 93% of respondents reported that they 'sometimes' or 'often' support women who experience domestic violence. 65% of the survey respondents said that they support women with all the following either 'sometimes' or 'often': homelessness, domestic violence, sexual violence, involvement in prostitution, problematic drugs and alcohol use, mental ill health and involvement in the criminal justice system. The research also explored the way in which women experience homelessness and their journey to services: - Domestic and sexual violence as well as changes in welfare leading to an inability to cover housing costs were reported to be the main triggers for women's homelessness - To avoid violence and exploitation when sleeping rough women either stay with family and friends or resorting to using public transport or A&E waiting rooms - Women who experience domestic violence and present to the local authority were reported to often receive an inadequate response and are not deemed priority need. - When women do sleep rough, they may stay on the move all night to avoid the risks of more violence and exploitation - Traditional support provided through the homelessness pathway tends to be mixed provision which risks exposing women to further violence and exploitation. Staff rarely have the skills and experience to understand the types of support women need as a result of the continuum of violence they have experienced. Support available for homeless women who experience multiple disadvantage Of the 90 respondents to the survey, the majority (62%) were from homelessness and housing services, but a wide range of other community support projects were represented including violence and abuse support services, criminal justice support services, substance use, drop-in advice services and specialist women's services. Almost half of the services that responded to the survey (48%) reported that they were designed to work specifically with women facing multiple disadvantage, 46% reporting that they are not and 6% answered 'not sure'. 19 respondents explicitly stated that their service was a dedicated woman only organisation. Responses varied significantly in the extent to which services implement policies, practices and training to inform their support for this group of women, suggesting that services need to be strengthened to incorporate gender informed policies, practices and training. Effective support for homeless women facing multiple disadvantage Building on previous research this project identified common factors that are reported to enhance the effectiveness of support for women experiencing multiple disadvantage: - Organisational commitment to work from an understanding of women's lived experience of inequality - Service design which incorporates gendered approaches - incorporating the understanding of the impacts of VAWG and how to respond appropriately - Organisational structures: policies, staff recruitment training and support - implementing policies which embed a gendered approach, recruiting knowledgeable, empathic, compassionate and resilient staff that are trained on violence against women. Examples of promising practice where services have incorporated the elements illustrated above have been documented in a series of good practice case studies in the full report. Barriers and enablers to providing effective support The primary barriers facing services include: - A lack of strategic, gender informed funding approaches from commissioners. - Structural barriers relating to an overall lack of availability of safe, appropriate housing options. - A lack of resources resulting from widespread social care sector spending cuts, particularly for women with no recourse to public funds. - A lack of systematic evidence relating to women's homelessness which delays their access to support. As such, those providing gender informed and gender specific approaches are facing an uphill struggle in making the case for and levering in resources to do their work. Suggestions were noted that would enhance support for women: - Increasing joint commissioning approaches to encourage services to work together rather than in silos - The Housing First model adapted to work specifically with women - Specific expertise, time and resource available to advocate for migrant women to access their rights, entitlements and legal advice - Changes to how women's homelessness is categorised including the need for changes to the verification process which can miss out women who do not sleep rough and those who hide themselves whilst rough sleeping Assertive outreach models to more effectively locate, identify and engage women. Details: London: Homeless Link and Women's Resource Centre, 2019. 55p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 15, 2019 at: https://www.homeless.org.uk/sites/default/files/site-attachments/Women%27s%20research_March%2019_0.pdf Year: 2019 Country: United Kingdom URL: https://www.homeless.org.uk/sites/default/files/site-attachments/Women%27s%20research_March%2019_0.pdf Shelf Number: 154981 Keywords: Disadvantaged PersonsDomestic ViolenceGender-Based IssuesHomeless PersonsHomeless WomenHousingRough SleepingVictim ServicesViolence Against Women |