Blog Written By Alice Coren, Infastructure Lead at WBCF
16 women from a variety of small and medium sized Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise organisations came together to talk about challenges and solutions surrounding women’s experience of homelessness.
Women who are risk of homelessness, or who are experiencing homelessness, are often less visibly homeless. This means they don’t necessarily show up on homelessness caseloads, they might stay in unsafe situations, in temporary accommodation or sofa surf to avoid presenting as homeless. Gender inequalities also impact women’s routes into and out of homelessness such as lower wages, benefit cuts, discrimination and stigma. Women are disproportionately negatively affected by multiple types of gender based violence, selling or exchanging sex and child removal.
Despite knowing this, not a lot of system provision is gender specific. Wigan Borough Community First were approached by Wigan Council with a small pot of money to give out to the sector to make a difference to homelessness – with a particular focus on women and young people. Because a lot of the applications to Progress With Unity: Path to Purpose were focusing on women and trauma, we wanted to give dedicated space to a women focused conversation.
We talked about so many issues – barriers put up by system partners not working together, websites leading people down the wrong path, the way women are trapped in risky situations because of private rent conditions, social care giving opposing information to housing teams. Amongst the group were women with lived experience of homelessness, women who were in the throes of advocating for women they support, women who run refuges and women who spoke passionately about the way community has stepped up to provide more support to a homeless girl than any system could.
The group came up with a wealth of solutions to all the issues, from small shifts to existing systems all the way through to women led self build projects. I’ll be sharing these ideas with the group members so they have the opportunity to add and reflect on them. For me it was another affirmation that the community groups have insights, abilities, perspectives and expertise that are often undervalued.
The women round the table weren’t thinking about their own organisations, and they weren’t seeking to just get the money. They collectively want to make a difference, and we are hopefully in a place where we can link them to resource. I will be going back to our finance manager to figure out our next steps and the Women and Homelessness group will be meeting again.
We also have a big interest from providers in a broader conversation about homelessness, so keep an eye out and there will be another Bread and Butter event arranged.