5.2. Perceived impact of Housing First Stoke-on-Trent’s women’s project

Across the interviews and the workshops, it was felt that the current system of support renders women’s needs unmet in various ways. It was perceived that many of the women are known to the system and have been ‘let down’ in the past, which has fuelled their mistrust of services. In addition, the generational impact of multiple disadvantage was also highlighted; interview participants talked about how they are now working with the children and grandchildren of women they have previously worked with. This suggests more needs to be done to try to disrupt the long-lasting impacts that these experiences can have on generations of families.

There is a need to examine how accessible/appropriate the wider system of services in Stoke-on-Trent are for women with experience of multiple disadvantage who may well present with complex needs and be reluctant to engage with support.

Given the traumatic events and repeated crises women experienced, it was felt that different approaches were needed to make services and support more accessible, appropriate and effective. More outreach, for example, was considered essential. Ultimately though, participants emphasised the need for women to have physical safety before they can try to move on from their experiences and impact of complex trauma.

In contrast to the unmet needs of women with experience of multiple disadvantage within the wider system of support, Housing First as a model was perceived to have real potential to work in a gender and trauma informed manner (see also Steele, 2021). The way Housing First works with customers was felt to be more appropriate (than other approaches) for the needs of women experiencing multiple disadvantage and complex trauma; the emphasis on smaller caseloads, building up trust, doing what they say they will do, investing more time with individual customers, flexibility, and the separation of housing and support were all framed as valuable.

Ultimately, the perception was that women need a safe roof ‘and somewhere you can consider home’ before work could begin to address their other needs (e.g., around mental health and addictions).

In terms of Housing First Stoke-on-Trent’s women’s worker project specifically, there was consensus that the practical security measures of CCTV (that does not require WIFI) and video doorbells had a perceived positive impact on the safety of women,