Women’s homelessness is often hidden and, according to those working in the homelessness sector, a far wider and more nuanced problem than official statistics suggest. Homes for Cathy spoke to Gill Cook, Head of Supported Housing at the Salvation Army Housing Association (SAHA) to find out why tailored, gender-informed homelessness services and interventions are key to helping women move forward with their lives after homelessness.
What homelessness services does SAHA provide specifically for women?
We have a 26-bed Edwardian house in Notting Hill, London with 23 single occupancy rooms with shared facilities and three self-contained mother and baby units. The service is commissioned by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and takes referrals for single, homeless young women aged 16 to 30 with support needs.
Currently, around 60 per cent of the service users there are 16- and 17-year-old unaccompanied minors who have come through the immigration system and are either waiting for their immigration status or have indefinite leave to remain. The remainder have complex needs, including mental and domestic violence. Roughly one in three have a statutory duty of care through mental health.
In Guildford, we run a 15-bed hostel for single women aged 18 and over, with no children. The common denominator is that all our clients have experienced trauma as children or as adults in the form of domestic abuse, which has led to their homelessness in one way or another.
For young parents, we provide the Sussex young parents service, which is commissioned by East Sussex County Council’s adult social care team, and includes two five-bedroom houses in New Haven and Eastbourne, for young women aged 16 to 25. Our clients have a housing need but also complex needs and are either pregnant or have up to two children under the age of five. We also run an 11-bed supported accommodation service in St Leonards for young parents aged 16-25, again with both housing and complex needs.
How do women experience homelessness differently from men?
When we think of homelessness, we tend to think of rough sleeping. While women do rough sleep, the majority are hidden homeless, with many entering into unsafe relationships to prevent themselves from rough sleeping. As a result, there is a lot of trauma and psychological and physical abuse around women’s homelessness, which isn’t necessarily considered as the first issue. What’s more, women tend to be further down the line before they access support, so by the time they come to us, their needs tend to be more complex.
Why are women-only homelessness services important?
One of the main problems with the homelessness services commissioned by local authorities is that they’re not specifically for women. This can lead to added trauma for women experiencing homelessness, as they do not want to access supported housing provision where they have to share it with men. This is particularly an issue for trans women. It’s a cycle we could break if gender-specific services were properly funded.
Unfortunately, ringfenced funding for these kinds of services was removed many years ago and, year on year, local authorities have reduced commissioning. Registered providers end up subsidising services to maintain service quality. Looking ahead, the new Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act will require local housing authorities to publish a supported housing strategy assessing how provision meets local need, which could have a positive impact on the range and types of homelessness services local authorities provide.
How do you ensure an environment of physical and psychological safety in your women only homelessness services?
The key issue is getting women through the door in the first instance, so it’s vital to make services accessible, as they may feel uncomfortable or scared, or they simply don’t want to admit that they need support. Our services don’t take direct referrals, so it’s important to build good relationships with the local authority housing team who can then signpost women to us. We invite local authority housing officers to come and visit the service and chat with residents, so they know exactly who we are and what we do.
The support we offer is trauma-informed and person-centred, which really makes a difference. We invite potential new residents to come round and have a look at the service, so they have already seen the environment and built a relationship with us before they move in. Often, the women we support have already received labels through contact with the criminal justice system or mental health services, so they feel a lot of shame. To help overcome this, we take a peer approach, encouraging existing residents to show new residents round the service.
In terms of staff recruitment, we believe it’s essential to have the right people on the bus, which starts by having the women who use our services involved in the recruitment process, so they feel in control over the staff who come into the scheme and deliver support, and are able to have trusted professionals in their lives.
How can mixed-gender homelessness schemes be improved to better support women?
It’s key to take a trauma informed approach in mixed-gender services too, that’s based on kindness and compassion. Whatever their gender, we try to empower residents to go ‘against their script’ and keep their own clear boundaries to keep themselves and others safe. We also employ male staff, so that both our male and female residents have positive male role models.
In terms of the physical environment, where we have a large building such as the large hostel we run in Liverpool, we have separate clusters for men and women, and safety is managed by the fact that male residents cannot access the female cluster and vice versa.
What approaches do you take to help women recover?
It can sometimes be challenging for residents to access local services such as drug and alcohol support, particularly if they’re located too far away or if the resident has serious mental health problems. We’ve been able to secure funding to bring services in-house at some schemes, which is really helping to prevent a repeat cycle of homelessness.
The right staff training and the right management support is essential. Not only do staff members need the skills to support clients in their journeys, but as an employer we also need to consider the vicarious trauma they might experience dealing with difficult issues day to day. All our staff receive trauma informed practice training, with a focus on their own wellbeing and resilience. Staff members may also have lived experience, so it’s key that we manage that and protect their safety. Aside from formal training, staff can access one to one supervision outside of their management supervision if they need to, which means they’re able to deliver better interventions.
At our London women’s service, we have a six-week resettlement support plan for when residents move on, but there is an open-door policy forever and our ‘alumni’ can reach out to us for support when things get tough. We’ve noticed that residents can sometimes struggle at the 18-month mark, and peer support from women who have moved out and moved on can really help to inspire them for the future.
What barriers do residents face in moving to long-term, permanent housing and how can these be overcome?
The right type of accommodation is vital but sadly, there is very, very little housing available for women to move on to from our services and on occasion, the accommodation they are offered is not appropriate. For example, we see situations where residents are offered a shared house – for someone who has been the victim of abuse or childhood trauma and has high levels of anxiety, this can be extremely hard. It runs the risk of revisiting that trauma all over again. To help overcome this, we are a registered AQA provider and offer learning for residents on how to live in shared accommodation.
Affordability is also a problem; in areas such as Kensington & Chelsea, Hastings and Guildford where we run services, the price of private rental property is outside the scope of our residents, as local housing allowance does not tend to cover the cost of the rent. Residents can also face barriers in terms of finding a guarantor for private rental.
Women can also struggle with being placed outside of the borough, as they can be far from friends and family and face losing their local support network. On a positive note, our open-door approach means we’re able to support former residents who are having issues with their tenancies once they move on.
Finally, what message would you like to get across to housing associations seeking to better support women who have experienced homelessness?
The trauma informed approach we take in supported housing is equally relevant in general needs. Women who have experienced homelessness are much more likely to be able to sustain a tenancy if, when they talk to their housing officer, they receive a gender and trauma informed response.
Salvation Army Housing Association (SAHA) is a registered provider and an exempt charity that started developing housing and services in 1959. A wholly controlled subsidiary of The Salvation Army, the association has grown into a specialist provider of support and accommodation with approximately 4100 units of accommodation located across England in 86 local authority areas.