5.4. Gender-informed support

Citizens commented on the unfairness that it is often women who end up leaving their homes, removed from their area, friends and families to find ‘a safe place’ after fleeing domestic abuse.

experiencing homelessness (including complex trauma) at a strategic level; a lack of ‘buy in’ was source of frustration for many participants who viewed it as well known that the system is not working for women with experience of multiple disadvantage, but that nothing has been done to change this. It should also be acknowledged this was famed as a national issue, not just one that applied to Stokeon-Trent.

Locally, the ‘Everyone In’ campaign was praised for services working together quickly. It was also considered to have made women’s homelessness more visible, as highlighted by Riley et al (2020) because the campaign saw a larger number of women come forward than expected. Two important considerations here are: what has happened to women the women since? How will this new insight about the scale of women’s need for accommodation be used in the future?

In addition to the recommendations set out below, we would draw attention to two other resources for understanding how to improve support for women with experience of homelessness and multiple disadvantage in Stoke-on-Trent. Firstly, our previous report on support services for women in Stoke-on-Trent which was based on the views of stakeholders and women with lived experience of multiple disadvantage (McCormack, Fedorowicz, & Gidlow, 2019). In it, we set out recommendations for the provision and commissioning of gender-informed support services for women. One set of recommendations focused on implications for generic services (e.g., to improve awareness of women’s multiple disadvantage and specific needs, to provide training on this and trauma informed practice, to upskill staff to better understand, recognise and respond to individual women’s needs and experiences, and to acknowledge that some women may require additional time and support which should be reflected in the management of staff’s caseloads). The second set focused on the introduction of additional genderspecific services for women (e.g., a ‘one stop shop’ where a broad range of

support is available with opportunity to ‘drop in’ and a friendly and relaxed atmosphere, further work with experts by experience to design services, the potential for pooled resources, and the need for more appropriate women-only hostel/accommodation options – including for those wanting/in the process of ‘moving on’). The third set considered services working together more effectively (i.e., better co-ordination and communication between services, and better understanding and promotion of the services available, and their remits).

Almost 3 years on, most of these recommendations still apply, though in this report, we also consider the impact of complex trauma on women experiencing homelessness and how that can impact on women’s ability, willingness and desire to trust and engage with ‘services’. We also focus more on implications for the wider system and the need for recognition of gendered experiences of homelessness at a strategic level.

Second, as mentioned earlier, Homeless Link recently published recommendations based on the learning from their Ending Women’s Homelessness Fund; they set out recommendations for policy makers, funders and commissioners, services supporting women, and specifically for mainstream mixed-sex services (Horvath and Young, 2021). They also emphasise the need to acknowledge the experiences of all women experiencing homelessness, including black and minoritised women, and women with no recourse to public funds.

We close this section by returning to the topic of gender equality and gender equity. As discussed earlier, the WHO highlights that gender equity means that, for both

between groups. This research, along with the existing evidence base, finds that the focus on ‘rough sleeping’ and the visible face of homelessness has meant that women’s experiences, needs and priorities have not been fully understood or recognised. This has had a knock-on effect on the mainstream services available, which our stakeholders argued has been designed and developed based on this visible face of (men’s) homelessness. That is not to say that some elements, e.g., lack of appropriate accommodation, parenthood, dual diagnosis, stigma, may also be part of men’s experiences of homelessness and multiple disadvantage, but that