Women More Likely to Be Affected by Homelessness, Charity Says Sophie Corcoran - KentLive
go to original December 31, 2021

When Home Is the Street (whenhomeisthestreet)

Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, said women are bearing the brunt of the escalating housing crisis and “are being failed at every turn.”

Women are more likely to be affected by homelessness than men, Shelter has said.

A report by the charity, named “Fobbed Off”, found that 60% of homeless adults in temporary accommodation are women, despite them making up 51% of the general population.

In the last 10 years, the number of homeless women in temporary accommodation has nearly doubled.

Shelter said in 2011, 40,030 women were living in temporary accommodation, but that has risen by 88% to 75,410 in 2021.

Polling carried out by YouGov and commissioned by the charity found that women are 36% more likely than men to be in arrears or struggling with housing costs, with single mothers facing the most affordability issues, with almost one in three “constantly” struggling to keep a roof over their heads.

Figures show that 69% of women who privately rent worry they will not be able to afford anywhere “decent” if their relationship breaks down.

During research, 34 women and one non-binary person who were either homeless or living in poor housing in Birmingham, Bristol and Sheffield were interviewed and key findings revealed that domestic abuse is the third most common cause of homelessness, with a third of interviewees having experienced it.

Research also found lone mothers faced additional barriers to support, which some did not seek out of fear that they would be separated from their children.

Toni, 38, from Birmingham, was made homeless after a relationship breakdown and is now living with her children in temporary accommodation, which she described as “mouldy”, in “disrepair” and inaccessible for her disabled son.

She said: “When you’re homeless, you don’t even get spoken to like you’re human. Because you’re in temporary accommodation people make assumptions about you.

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