Women Rough Sleepers in Europe: Homelessness and Victims of Domestic Abuse 9781447317111

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WOMEN ROUGH SLEEPERS IN EUROPE homelessness and victims of domestic abuse

Kate Moss and Paramjit Singh

WOMEN ROUGH SLEEPERS IN EUROPE Homelessness and victims of domestic abuse Kate Moss and Paramjit Singh

First published in Great Britain in 2015 by Policy Press North America office: University of Bristol Policy Press 1-9 Old Park Hill c/o The University of Chicago Press Bristol 1427 East 60th Street BS2 8BB Chicago, IL 60637, USA UK t: +1 773 702 7700 t: +44 (0)117 954 5940 f: +1 773 702 9756 [email protected] [email protected] www.policypress.co.uk www.press.uchicago.edu © Policy Press 2015 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 978 1 44731 709 8 hardcover The right of Kate Moss and Paramjit Singh to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved: no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of Policy Press. The statements and opinions contained within this publication are solely those of the authors and not of the University of Bristol or Policy Press. The University of Bristol and Policy Press disclaim responsibility for any injury to persons or property resulting from any material published in this publication. Policy Press works to counter discrimination on grounds of gender, race, disability, age and sexuality. Cover design by Policy Press Front cover image: istock Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY Policy Press uses environmentally responsible print partners

For Dad  For my wife, Mahi. Thank you for always being there for me

Contents List of figures and tables vi Glossary vii About the authors viii Acknowledgements ix Introduction x one two three four five six seven

Getting below the surface of women’s rough sleeping Towards a theory of women’s homelessness: social dysfunction theory A European perspective on women’s rough sleeping Analysing and understanding the problem: women rough sleepers’ stories Analysing and understanding the problem: service providers’ stories Explaining women’s rough sleeping Challenges and recommendations

1 21 45 79 107 161 183

References 203 Appendix: Research instruments used in the study 219 Index 229

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List of figures and tables Figures 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8

UK: ethnicity Hungary: ethnicity Spain: ethnicity Sweden: ethnicity Age of rough sleepers: comparison of all countries Types of abuse women rough sleepers have faced: comparison of all countries Number of times of rough sleeping: comparison of all countries Background/personal profiles of women rough sleepers: comparison of all countries

162 164 166 168 169 170

Types of organisations accessed in each country

175

171 173

Tables 6.1

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Glossary AA alcohol abuse BB black British BC British Caucasian BI British Indian CH children DA domestic abuse DAN Danish DCLG Department for Communities and Local Government DV domestic violence EU European Union ETH ethnicity FA family abuse FEANSTA European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless FR French GER German HABITACT European Exchange Forum on Local Strategies HAS Hungarian Social Act I Indian IPV intimate partner violence IR Iranian LA local authority MAW multi-agency working MEP Member of the European Parliament MH mental health MOR Moroccan PA partner abuse POL police/prison Q/T OR QUAL qualifications/training ROM Romanian RS rough sleepers SP service providers Sp Spanish Sw Swedish SW sex work UK United Kingdom WEE White Eastern European WM West Midlands WRS women rough sleepers xSR number of times slept rough

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About the authors Kate Moss is Professor of Criminal Justice at the Central Institute for the Study of Public Protection (CISPP), University of Wolverhampton, UK. She has carried out research for the Home Office, Government Office East Midlands, Centrex, Bramshill and numerous police forces and local authorities throughout England. Over the last four years at the University of Wolverhampton, with her colleague Paramjit Singh, she has secured in excess of 2.6 million euros of research funding to support research into women who sleep rough as a result of domestic violence, and also children rough sleepers. Paramjit Singh is the Director for Research at CISPP. He has

successfully developed and managed seven self-funding research centres in higher education and over last 15 years managed over 100 research projects for clients including the European Commission, UK Government, local authorities, research councils, and voluntary and community sectors. He regularly attends the European Parliament in Brussels to meet with MEPs to provide evidence to inform future EU policy and practice.

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Acknowledgements The research, upon which this book is based, was undertaken with the financial support of the Daphne III Programme of the European Commission. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the University of Wolverhampton and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Commission. The authors would like to thank the European Commission for funding this research, without which this addition to knowledge would not have been possible. Our thanks also go to all the women and service providers who took part in this study; to our partners in Hungary, Spain and Sweden, with whom we worked on this project for two years; to Kathryn Williams, graduate of SOAS, University of London, who assisted with the editing of Chapter Three; and to Gemma Moss, PhD student at the University of Manchester, whose knowledge of late modernity greatly influenced the writing of Chapter Two.

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Introduction Women’s rough sleeping is a major issue across European countries and is especially problematic within the current economic climate. The research described in this book reveals a number of truths about women’s rough sleeping including the fact that many of the current issues that prevail in relation to this social problem have common themes across Europe and that there is little or no specific provision for this vulnerable and hard to reach group. Based on a European Union DAPHNE III-funded project, this book tells the story of the women and organisations that took part in this research in an effort to increase the knowledge base relating to women rough sleepers (WRS); to equip organisations to set up or adopt effective policies, strategies and services to meet their needs, and to challenge current policy, practice and thinking about the problem of women rough sleepers who are the victims of domestic abuse. Carried out in four European countries, the research underpinning this book focuses on a number key issues including the extent of the problem; the significance of abuse; the problem of women’s complex needs and the significance of the numbers of children who are disconnected from their rough sleeping mothers. It describes the essential characteristics of the women in the study, the problems of comorbidity, the current lack of services for this group, and how this problem can better be tackled by policy makers and service providers, with key recommendations for both. Our aim is to highlight the fact that researching women who sleep rough because of domestic violence is important for several reasons. First, because of the limited information available about rough sleeping and the fact that this data tends to focus on the problem as experienced by men, as opposed to women. Second, the hidden nature of women’s homelessness can often result in their needs being overlooked. Many homeless women spend time living with friends or relatives, often with periods of sleeping rough in between. Previous research has shown that women do not appear to access homeless services. This may either be due to a lack of awareness of the services available to them, or due to a lack of suitable provision. Added to the problem of the lack of detailed and realistic information about homelessness in general across Europe, this problem is more acute in the case of women’s homelessness because very small proportions engage with street outreach teams. Many become homeless to escape violence from a partner or someone they know.

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The research that has been carried out into homelessness on an international level thus far, really only focuses on the problem as experienced by men. However, what little information exists about women’s homelessness indicates that there are differences between the female and male rough sleeping populations, which raises a strong case for further research in this area to highlight specifically women’s support needs. We wanted to help bridge this gap by undertaking research into the characteristics and needs of women rough sleepers, and also current service provision, policy and practice. In so doing it is also important to highlight the conceptual and theoretical background to the research; what approaches were used and why, and the challenges that undertaking qualitative research of this nature present. We contextualise this against the background of a grounded theory approach postulated by Glaser and Strauss (1967) in which the underlying methodology is both descriptive and explanatory. The story that we tell here is based on research that we carried out during a two year funded research project, between January 2011 and January 2013. Funding came from the European Union Daphne III Programme. The background to this goes back to 2009, when the University of Wolverhampton was commissioned to undertake research into the phenomenon of women rough sleepers in Shrewsbury, Shropshire – which to all intents and purposes is a small, rather middle class town. We had no idea at the time that they would have such a problem (but they did) or that it would lead us to bid for funding to further this work throughout Europe. Our findings regarding women’s rough sleeping in Shrewsbury highlighted that the problem was largely due to the ineffective resettlement of women recently released from nearby prisons in Shropshire and this helped service organisations to better understand and deal with the problem presenting itself. The women rough sleepers project was borne out of that small research project, since we found three specific things; first that there were many times more women rough sleepers than we had anticipated; second, that there was little or no information about them; and third, that most, if not all of them had become homeless as a result of domestic abuse in some form. We also found that there was a widespread view that women’s homelessness was not a particularly serious problem. This view continues to prevail and to affect services throughout the EU countries that we have studied in this research. For example, Homeless Link (2012) found that within the UK alone, 85 per cent of service providers have women accessing their services, but only 12 per cent target services at women. This project led directly to our research bid

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to the Daphne III Programme of the European Union for funding to research this little understood or acknowledged social problem. The research was carried out in four European countries – the UK, Hungary, Spain and Sweden and investigated the following issues in each country: the current extent of the problem of women’s rough sleeping; the characteristics of women rough sleepers and their distinctive problems; current service provision, policy and practice in dealing with women rough sleepers; and the experiences of the women rough sleepers themselves. Because the research was funded by the Daphne III programme of the European Union, to be eligible to bid for this research, lead project partners who write the bid are obliged to carry out any funded research with European partners. As a result, we undertook a partner search across Europe to determine the existence of European organisations who were working with women rough sleepers and who wished (and were able) to undertake a role as project partners. Numerous responses were collated and from these, the countries in this study were chosen on the basis of their ability to undertake the research, to commit to a two year relationship with all project partners, access to key stakeholders and women rough sleepers themselves, and on the basis of representing a diversity of experiences and approaches to the problem of women’s rough sleeping which could be reflected in the research. Interviews, both with women rough sleepers and the service providers who supported them, were carried out in order to increase knowledge about the problem of women rough sleepers who have suffered domestic abuse (DA) in order to enhance expertise, collaboration and best practice in relation to this complex social problem. A broad definition of the concept of homelessness/rooflessness was adopted to reflect both the specific experiences of women and also the cultural dimensions and differences within partner countries in the study and a huge amount of qualitative data was collected from interviews carried out in the four countries with women rough sleepers themselves and with a range of service providers from different sectors.

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ONE

Getting below the surface of women’s rough sleeping Researching women rough sleepers is important not least because the majority of research into homelessness which has been carried out thus far has only focused on the problem of rough sleeping as experienced by men and not women. A greater focus on the differences in the nature and experience of women’s rough sleeping needs to be more widely acknowledged and disseminated and this raises a strong case for further research into this area to support women needs specifically, as well as emphasising the current lack of detailed information, knowledge, research and very limited provision for women rough sleepers right across Europe. This is exacerbated by the fact that women do not routinely engage with street outreach teams and most significantly their rough sleeping is most often directly linked with domestic abuse. Women rough sleepers have a very low visible presence, enormous diversity within the target group and significant problems of comorbidity – specifically in relation to mental health issues, drug/ alcohol abuse and long term separation from children – which has long term implications for both women rough sleepers and their children in terms of health, education and stability. Researching women who sleep rough because of domestic violence is also important for several other reasons. First because of the limited information available about rough sleeping and the fact that this data tends to focus on the problem as experienced by men, as opposed to women. Second, the hidden nature of women’s homelessness can often result in their needs being overlooked. Many homeless women spend time living with friends or relatives, often with periods of sleeping rough in between. Previous research has shown that women do not appear to access homeless services. This may either be due to a lack of awareness of the services available to them, or due to a lack of suitable provision. Added to the problem of the lack of detailed and realistic information about homelessness in general across Europe, this problem is more acute in the case of women’s homelessness because a very small proportion engage with street outreach teams. Many become homeless to escape violence from a partner or someone they know. The research that has been carried out into homelessness on an international level

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really only focuses on the problem as experienced by men. However, what little information exists about women’s homelessness indicates that there are differences between the female and male rough sleeping populations, which raises a strong case for further research in this area to highlight women’s support needs specifically. The objectives of the project on which this book is based have been to undertake research into the characteristics and needs of women rough sleepers, and also current service provision, policy and practice. The research aimed to create a network or hub of specialism in this field for all European countries and as a result, the research team has been offering specialist-training workshops to equip organisations with the skills and knowledge to work more effectively with women rough sleepers who have suffered domestic violence. Organisations that took part in these workshops included local authorities, and voluntary, community and charitable organisations. What little information exists about women’s homelessness indicates that there are differences between the female and male rough sleeping populations, which raises a strong case for further research in this area to highlight women’s support needs specifically. We felt that further research was crucial because rough sleeping is a major issue across European countries and is especially problematic within the current economic climate. This has been established inter alia by Beijer (2001), Bakos (2008), Győri (2006), Muñoz et al (2003), Reeve et al (2006) and by Rosengran (2003). Rough sleeping is certainly an extreme manifestation of the range of states of insecurity that make up homelessness, and ‘a dangerous and traumatising experience’ (Crisis, 2011), according to Grenier, whose research two decades ago suggested that the average life expectancy of those sleeping rough in the UK was just 42 years. This is in contrast to UK averages at the time of 74 years for men and 79 for women (Grenier, 1996). Evidence suggests that this trend continues into the twenty-first century, and that women are at particular risk when sleeping rough (Crane, 2005; Crisis, 2011; Reeve et al, 2006; May et al, 2007). The problem of rough sleeping in the UK is difficult both to measure and to engage with for a variety of reasons. In terms of gaining a general grounding in the issues, a literature search indicates that the majority of existing work in this field comes from North America. There is strikingly little from either the UK or Europe, and what little there is has often comprised research in male social spheres, thus demonstrating the timeliness of this publication. A notable exception to this paucity of coverage is a paper by Casey et al (2008) exploring homeless women’s use of public spaces and buildings in England, which

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problematises the spatial boundaries, typically presented in literature and research, suggesting that homeless women are largely confined to institutional or private spaces of homelessness. The authors argue that homeless women make use of highly visible public spaces and semiprivate spaces, and that these practices can be conceptualised in terms of resistance: homeless women challenge the rules associated with occupying public spaces that either directly or tacitly exclude them, and they engage in identity work to resist being uncritically labelled as homeless, as also argued by May et al (2007) in their study of the movement patterns and mobile articulations of identity practised by ‘visibly’ homeless women on London’s streets. In all cases, it is probably correct that estimates of the true extent of the problem are far too low. Grant Shapps, former Housing Minister, was reported in the Guardian newspaper in 2010 as saying that the number of rough sleepers in the UK had been seriously underestimated, since the previous government’s formula, used in the official national Rough Sleeping Count of July 2010, showed that there were just 440 rough sleepers in the whole of England. Shapps argued, as many would consider self-evident, that this is clearly not a true reflection of the situation, and that such a small number came about because of the way in which figures were collected. Only people found lying down on grass on the day of the survey(s) could be recorded as ‘rough sleepers’; people seen sitting on pavements in sleeping bags, for example, could not be included. This resulted, for instance, in Manchester being officially recorded as having no rough sleepers (Ramesh, 2010). Such numbers are at odds with information presented by a range of government and NGO sources, and previous failings have been taken into account in post-2010 investigations according to the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG, 2014). However, voices both within and without government continue to argue that official statistics are inadequate. The Combined Homelessness and Information Network (CHAIN), which records all interactions between homeless people and outreach services in London, reported that 6,437 people were seen sleeping rough in London during 2012–13 (CHAIN, 2013, cited in DCLG, 2014). The capital is considered to be the location of more than half of the UK’s rough sleepers (DCLG, 2008) and the amount of people sleeping rough on its streets has grown in recent years: the figure actually increased by 43 per cent in 2011–12, the year London Mayor, Boris Johnson, had set as a target deadline for eradicating rough sleeping in the city altogether (Hill, 2012). There is clearly a lack of detailed and realistic information about homelessness in the UK. This problem is particularly acute in the case

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of women’s homelessness, as captured in the following statement issued by the YMCA on the Liverpool branch website: Homeless women are particularly isolated and cut off from services and assistance. While 60 per cent of homeless women have slept rough, only 12 per cent have engaged with street outreach teams. 40 per cent of homeless women reported having been excluded from a service and 10 per cent were not using any service. 20 per cent had become homeless to escape violence from someone they knew yet less than a third of women were accepted for housing by local authorities. (Liverpool YMCA, 2014) We have previously reported figures from the first decade of the twentyfirst century suggesting that homelessness among women had increased by around 80 per cent in a five year period (Moss and Singh, 2012). More recently, almost half of those judged as ‘homeless households in priority need’ by UK local authorities in the final quarter of 2013 were lone women with dependent children. Nearly 6,000 applications for assistance were accepted by local authorities in England in this three month period alone. Single women as a discrete category make up a further 11 per cent of those in priority need (DCLG, 2014). The fact that single women with dependent children make up such a significant number of those most in need further supports our argument that homeless women – and especially those sleeping rough – have specific, complex and often urgent needs requiring sensitive and targeted responses from dedicated services. Reeve et al (2006) conducted research among 160 homeless women across England, reporting that many of them are not receiving the assistance they require with accessing accommodation. The authors argue that this reflects the fact that homeless women’s wider situations, needs and vulnerabilities are not always adequately taken into account by interventions. They call for improvements and changes to local authority homelessness assessments, decisions and practices, and addressing the ways in which current services are not sensitised to the needs of women (Moss and Singh, 2012). It is important to note that the research suggests that women often inhabit what would not be conventionally considered as spaces of ‘homelessness’: many homeless women spend time living with friends or relatives, often with periods of sleeping rough in between, and do not appear to access homeless services. This may either be due to a lack of awareness of the services available to them, or due to a lack of suitable provision. As Casey et al (2008) suggest,

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Getting below the surface of women’s rough sleeping

such women may seek to subvert or resist the label ‘homeless’ through innovative use of public and semi-private spaces; interestingly, they may not consider ‘homeless’ a useful label for their experiences. Reeve et al (2006) therefore argue that effectively engaging with issues of women’s homelessness requires a change in our conceptual approach to homeless women. In addition, Walsh et al (2009) suggest that the decreasing focus on homelessness in the academic canon has had a particularly adverse effect on our understanding of women rough sleepers in particular, and indeed on women who experience diverse forms of social marginalisation in general. They reiterate assertions that women’s homelessness services should be sensitively targeted to take into account their specific experiences and that more research is needed into the life trajectories of homeless women, the latter of which will be discussed in more detail in subsequent sections. A number of organisations support the above arguments that the hidden nature of women’s homelessness can often result in their needs being overlooked. In the UK, Equation (formerly the Nottinghamshire Domestic Violence Forum (NDVF)) have shared a report carried out by Nottingham City Council, which found that there were ‘stark contrasts between the female and male rough sleeping populations, which raise strong cases for women-based services, particularly at a preventative level’ (Nottingham City Council, 2006, 1). This research is particularly useful in elucidating key factors in women’s homelessness and rough sleeping in the UK, and is especially admirable as a piece of local government-driven work focusing on the lived experiences of rough sleepers in an urban area. Nottingham City Council’s findings suggest ‘clear indicators’ (Nottingham City Council, 2006, 1) of factors precipitating homelessness among women and reiterate that there are some significant differences in experiences and support needs between women and men. For example, 57 per cent of women rough sleepers surveyed in 2006 suffered coexisting drug misuse and mental health problems compared to 17 per cent of men. In addition to high levels of complex support needs and comorbidities, homelessness among women can be more clearly linked to ‘experiences’ (Nottingham City Council, 2006, 2), especially the experience of domestic violence; 59 per cent of the women rough sleepers in the 2006 survey had experienced domestic violence, compared with just 6 per cent of the men. Indicative of the ways in which traumatic experiences interact with and contribute to complex support needs among women rough sleepers, five out of six women dealing with coexisting mental health and drug misuse problems also reported having been victims of domestic violence (Nottingham City Council, 2006, 2).

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This information, together with the reports of similar problems in the countries who expressed an interest in undertaking this study alongside us, led to us submitting and subsequently securing a bid to the EU Daphne funding programme to carry out further work into this underresearched area. Eligibility depends on the lead project partner who plans and procures the bid carrying out the research with European partners. We undertook a partner search across Europe to determine the existence of European organisations who were working with women rough sleepers and who wished (and were able) to undertake a role as project partners. Numerous responses were collated and from these, the countries in this study were chosen on the basis of their ability to undertake the research, to commit to a two year relationship with all project partners, access to key stakeholders and women rough sleepers themselves, and on the basis of representing a diversity of experiences and approaches to the problem of women’s rough sleeping which could be reflected in the research. Our research partners were based in Sweden, Spain and Hungary and the research teams collaborated on fieldwork which focused on a number of key issues including the extent of the problem; the significance of abuse; the problem of women’s complex needs and the significance of the numbers of children who are disconnected from their rough sleeping mothers. Partners were not academic institutions but were either non-governmental organisations working with the homeless or local authority organisations. Over two years we worked together to identify the essential characteristics of the women in the study, the problems of comorbidity, the current lack of services for this group, and how this problem could better be tackled by policy makers and service providers, with key recommendations for both. The project partners came together to produce an overarching qualitative ethnographic research instrument, which was then delivered in each country, collated and analysed. This necessitated close collaboration, overcoming both language and cultural differences and fostering an understanding of partner country social structures, policies and working practices. The collaboration and teamwork fostered among the partners was close and very successful. Our overarching aim was to raise greater awareness of this social problem and hopefully to add to the pressure on policy makers to be accountable. We were, at the same time, mindful of the specificities of carrying out qualitative research within groups of vulnerable and hard to reach individuals and the advantages and disadvantages of this type of research. In particular, it is important to remember that qualitative inquiry of this type often has auto ethnographic dimensions, which are

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largely ignored. We feel it is important for researchers to acknowledge the emotional investment that is often required of ethnographic fieldworkers studying what Jewkes (2012) describes as; ‘stigmatised and/or vulnerable “others” in settings where differential indices of power, authority, vulnerability, and despair are felt more keenly than most’. Often, the emotional investment employed in adopting the qualitative, ethnographic story telling approach to research is largely obliterated by a focus on findings, outcomes and analysis. However, this misses the depth of understanding which can be gained from a more detailed discussion about the process of doing that research, including experiences of working in the field, the emotional investment involved in personal encounters that can affect methodological and theoretical orientations and discussion about the effect of this on the validity of social research. Initially a grounded theory approach was adopted in terms of the ‘what’ question, in identifying the elements underpinning the conditions of women who sleep rough. It was then supported by realistic evaluation in explaining how and why they slept rough. The descriptive approach involved a series of questions that were informed by the literature review and used within the face-to-face interviews with service providers and the rough sleepers. All interviews were recorded, translated (where appropriate) and then analysed. The descriptive analysis was later supported by a realistic evaluation approach (Pawson and Tilley, 1997) which focuses on the inter-relationships between the prevailing context (for rough sleeping); the mechanisms (triggers for sleeping rough and interventions); and the outcomes (the impact of sleeping rough and interventions) in an effort to explain the relationships between the ‘why’, the ‘how’ and the ‘with what impact’ questions contained within the research. Given the difficulties associated with the vulnerability of the interviewees, the researchers and the analysis took all possible steps to take a reflexive stance. This was to ensure that our interpretation of the findings represented the reality of the interviewees’ world and minimised the influence of the research situation. This was particularly important given the fact that women who sleep rough are unable to draw upon their own personal abilities in dealing with the absence of social guidelines that is characteristic of the reflexive imperative in late modernity (Archer, 2012). While researchers are able to ‘look through the mirror’ rather than merely study its reflection, the interviewee subjects of this study, were not able to do the same in relation to the social situation in which they find themselves. Our aim was to remain true to the reality of their world rather than construct or reconstruct our interpretation of it.

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Methodology It is important to explain the methodology used in this research and why it was employed. The research was shaped by grounded theory and qualitative interviewing in relation to the personal narratives of the women and organisations that took part in the study. Grounded theory methods were appropriate since they consist of flexible strategies for focusing and expediting qualitative data collection and analysis. This approach provided us with a set of steps to enable us to move from specific observations to broader generalisations in order to render a conceptual understanding of them. Based in the work of Glaser and Strauss (1967) and Glaser (1992) this approach helped us to develop theories from the qualitative data we collected and thus assisted in the conceptualisation of that qualitative data, as well as demonstrating the relationships between the conceptual categories within the research and the conditions under which theoretical relationships emerged. The chapter will detail the processes involved in adopting a grounded theory approach and what we perceived as the benefit of refraining from the traditional approach of the ‘preconceived hypothesis’. It is fairly widely accepted that Glaser and Strauss’s (1967) grounded theory came about as a reaction to what is generally termed ‘grand theory’ – an abstract conceptual sociological theory. The origins of grounded theory also lie in a paradigm called ‘symbolic interactionism’ and the work of American sociologist, Cooley (1902) – whose most famous contribution was ‘the looking glass self ’ – and American philosopher, Mead (1934), who pioneered the development of the symbolic interaction perspective. Grounded theory provides a more rigorous and systematic approach to the collection and analysis of qualitative data, which can enhance understandings of and provide explanation for, psychological or sociological phenomena. Rather than starting out with a theory, Strauss and Corbin (1994) suggest that the grounded approach posits a possible explanation/explanations for the phenomena that are being studied, thus allowing for the construction and development of a range of alternative explanations in relation to areas of under-researched topics. Therefore, the idea is to build a theory in relation to an area of study where there may be little existing information. This does not, however, mean that we start with a blank page – although this has sometimes been suggested of grounded theory, as well as the suggestion that a literature review should not be carried out beforehand. Generally speaking, when one is using a grounded theory approach, it is common to utilise multiple sources of data, including observation, interviewing, case studies and focus

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groups. Whatever methods are employed by the researcher, however, it is important that the research remains fairly unstructured so that the chance of influencing the data or findings from any preconceived ideologies of the researcher is minimised. Arguably, when conducting research which focuses on a social problem with policy implications, it can also be relevant to draw data from a very wide area and in the case of homelessness this can even extend to newspaper articles, internet blogs and various other sorts of social media information which may not necessarily be relevant to many other forms of research. The architects of grounded theory – Glaser and Strauss – actually adopted different approaches to the implementation of the theory. Glaser was firmly of the opinion that no formative literature reviews should be undertaken prior to conducting the research and that the findings should not be discussed prior to the writing up in order to minimise any subconscious ‘processing’ of the information by the researcher. He also emphasised the need for a researcher to have ‘theoretical sensitivity’ in relation to being able to understand the meaning and sensitivity of the data. When one is dealing with emotive issues involved in homelessness for example, there can be extremely sensitive issues at play and even traumatising accounts of experiences. The way the researcher deals with this and the skill that must be used with sensitive data such as this is discussed more fully in the next chapter. Theoretical sensitivity to the data allows the researcher to delve more deeply into issues that present themselves as the research plays out. For example, if we discovered in the course of interviews that many women experienced particular types of abuse, the sensitive researcher might develop that particular line of questioning, thus producing a continuous interplay between the collection of the data and its ongoing analysis, which in cases like this, is actually being partially analysed during its collection. This process is known as ‘theoretical sampling’ and basically means that the sampling may at times be driven by emerging theories to a point where it is perhaps no longer possible to learn anything more. This is called the ‘point of saturation’. Because the methodology for this study involved both qualitative and quantitative elements, the first activity undertaken with regard to the methodology was to design the research instruments to be used for the study. This involved the design of appropriate tools in collaboration with partners that could be used by all partners and adopted in other EU countries in order to conduct research under the initial workstream of the project. This included the design of two semi-structured interview schedules for ‘key informants’, (that is, the organisations who were involved in working with homeless women at that time) and for the

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women rough sleepers themselves. The interview schedules for both these groups took the form of semi-structured interview questionnaires with the intention of sampling a maximum of 20 key informant and 20 women rough sleepers in each country. Each interview was designed to take not more than 60 minutes to complete and the intention was then to transcribe and subject each interview to (individual) thematic analyses by the University of Wolverhampton research team, followed by joint team discussion of the issues raised to ensure that robust findings emerge from the research process. It is important to note that carrying out the semi-structured faceto-face interviews took place through a process of ‘snowballing’ the sample of women who have been abused and suffered violence. This was accomplished in partnership with agencies whose workers were best placed to identify those women who are known to sleep rough, where they sleep in public places and any ‘squats’ that may also be in use as well as those women who had previously slept rough but were now in hostel or other accommodation. It should be noted that this was an extremely difficult aspect of the research in each country that took part in the study. Clearly, not all women were willing to participate in the study, but a sample size of 20 women was actively sought from each country. This number was quite difficult to achieve and it is testament to the perseverance of the interviewers for the study that so many were successfully carried out. This also would not have been possible if it had not been for the huge support received by the researchers, from service providers and other agencies who put them in touch with this very hard to reach group. The interviews adopted a sensitive ‘life story’ approach which has proved to work well in terms of empowering research with vulnerable women. Interviews from partner countries were transcribed into English and subject to the same thematic analysis undertaken by the University of Wolverhampton research team. It is relevant to mention research ethics when describing a study such as this. Although the organisations we collaborated with did have ethical guidelines of their own, as the coordinator of the study it was agreed between the partners that the University of Wolverhampton’s ethical approval practice and procedures would be adopted in relation to the research. The University specifically has a handbook designed to assist in the application and assessment of ethical approval requests, the implementation of good conduct in research, and the prevention of misconduct, to ensure that researchers conduct research of the highest quality. The principles within the guidance are based on those of the UK Research Integrity Office and the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity. According to these guidelines, any research

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Getting below the surface of women’s rough sleeping

that involves systematic collection and/or storage of sensitive data taken from human participants will require ethical approval and/or be subject to restrictions under the Data Protection Act (1998). In these cases, ethical approval is sought from the researcher’s own faculty and, where appropriate also the external ethics committees. Researchers are expected to adhere to the principles of excellence, honesty, integrity, cooperation, accountability, training and skills, care, safety and respect. The University Ethical Principles have been drawn up through the University Ethics Committee with reference to a range of existing authorities on ethics such as the UK Research Integrity Office. They are intended to complement existing and forthcoming guidance on research conduct, such as that provided by Research Councils UK, the Wellcome Trust or the Council for Science and Technology. They also draw upon university policies, such as those for health and safety. Ethical approval is required to safeguard researchers conducting the study and also protects the rights, safety, dignity and well-being of research participants. Obtaining ethical approval also facilitates and promotes ethical research that is of potential benefit to participants, science and society. By obtaining ethical approval from an impartial committee and having in place robust systems for the review of studies the university can ensure that the research conducted is of high ethical standard, sound integrity and in accordance with good research governance and legal requirements. The university has introduced a comprehensive ethical scrutiny process to ensure that all research involving participants, their data and/or tissue addresses relevant ethical considerations and is subject to appropriate ethical review. The University Ethics Committee and its sub-committees (FECs) ensure appropriate ethical review of research and continue to develop policies and guidance to facilitate the protection of the university’s research participants. It was necessary to have a database for recording details of organisations and agencies, to formulate a report writing structure and to have tools to record literature resources and data. In order to effectively implement qualitative methodology involved in carrying out these tasks, it was also necessary to carry out a mapping and gapping exercise of provision available in all partner countries to support women rough sleepers. This provided an invaluable source of reference for both the researchers and the organisations involved in the study. This mapping exercise gave a clear representation of what services are already out there, who was accessing these services and what kinds of support was already available. The next stage of the methodological process was the implementation of the quantitative methodology. This was carried out by undertaking

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a quantitative analysis of the relevant data available from the qualitative interviews from each partner country and the thematic analysis of all primary and secondary data collected during the course of the study, which has already been referred to. This analysis will be discussed in greater detail in a later chapter. Appendix A shows the research instruments used in the study which were translated into three other languages. Schedule A represents the interview carried out with Key Service Providers and Schedule B, the interview carried out with homeless, or ex-homeless women. It is important to note that an indepth discussion between the partners took place before these research instruments were drafted. In particular agreement had to be sought about the definitions of homelessness, rough sleeping, rooflessness, domestic or intimate partner violence that the research team wished to adopt. This was a very important aspect of the research in the sense that it was agreed that the definitions should be kept as broad as possible in order to best reflect the differing legal, social, policy and cultural dimensions of rough sleeping in each partner country taking part in the study. The definitions which were finally arrived at after discussion, and which were included in the final interview schedules were as follows: Houselessness and homelessness • Women in refuges, shelters or other ad hoc or temporary accommodation • Women who remain in accommodation but are in an abusive situation • Women who do not have a private/safe place for social relations • Women who do not have legal title/exclusive possession to a safe home whether temporary or not • Women who are excluded socially or legally but not necessarily physically • Women in ‘roving’ accommodation.

Rooflessness • Sleeping or bedded down in the open air (streets, doorways, parks, bus shelters etc) • Staying or sleeping in a place not designed for regular sleeping accommodation for human beings/human habitation • Not having a registered address

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Getting below the surface of women’s rough sleeping

• European ETHOS typology ‘triple exclusion’ ie: social/legal/ physical • Women in ‘roving’ accommodation.

Domestic abuse or violence/intimate partner violence or abuse/ gender based violence or abuse • Partners may decide to use whatever terminology they feel is most appropriate • Physical, social, psychological, honour related, sexual, economic or financial.

Intimate partner or gender based • Occurring within a family • Inter familial – that is, occurring within a group of peers or within a family type situation • Within an intimate partner context. Once the data had been collected (the process and nature of that collection will be detailed in Chapter Four) the issue then was to make sense of it. This can of course be difficult when one is dealing in the main with qualitative ethnographic data. However, different types of coding can be utilised for different parts of the data. For example, with our women rough sleepers data, it was initially possible to tabulate aspects of the data collected such as demographics, and then to compare these across the countries involved in the study. Coding data is normally a way of helping the researcher to think about, or develop a theory and as such, coding can be seen as an interpretive process. Although there are different types of coding – such as open coding (which develops ideas/categories; selective coding (which can help build a story) and axial coding (which can assist in connecting ideas/categories) – in grounded theory, analysis normally begins with open coding since with qualitative ethnographic research it is necessary to look at the data line by line in order to get to the sense of what has been said. It is important not to simply reiterate what the interviewees have said, but to try to look at the intention or motivation behind what has been divulged to the interviewer. O’Callaghan (1996) states that the interviewer should ask a number of questions when analysing this sort of data. These questions should assist in extrapolating the meaning behind what has

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Women rough sleepers in Europe

been said and what the implications of this are. Useful questions at this stage include; what sociological problem are we looking at here; what is the data telling us; are there any patterns forming from the data; what are the reasons for the sociological problem; who are the respondents; what are they telling us; what part do their motivations play; what part does the environment play? These are simply examples of what could be asked, but whatever is asked, the point behind it is to highlight the implications of the data; to acknowledge what the data is telling us and in so doing to aid theoretical sensitivity. During the course of data collection, researchers were encouraged to make notes about ideas or insights that became evident during the course of the interviews. Particular words or phrases that were used consistently by interviewees were noted, for the purposes of coding later on. It was also important to record the reactions of those being interviewed since this also gave insights into levels of understanding of what was being asked; sensitivity to certain difficult questions and also the capacity of each interviewee to concentrate on what was being asked. This was important in order to be able to compare results across the samples. It is of course possible, using this method, to employ specific modes of coding to interprete the data. For example, axial coding – which looks at the relationships between codes and concepts, and also selective coding – which can help to identify a single category as the central or core concept. Glaser and Strauss (1967) suggested that to enhance the verification of the data or to be able to judge whether you have a good theory emanating from the data, there should be four elements present. These are first the closeness of fit between data and theory; second how well understood it can be by a lay person (in this case practitioners working with the homeless); third, if it allows for some change or control of the situations and finally whether it can be generalised to other situations. Great care was also taken to ensure that no harm or distress was caused to the respondents. All of the women who agreed to take part in the study were apprised of the purpose of the study beforehand by the agencies that put us in touch with them. They were assured that any contributions they made would be anonymised and the research schedule in Appendix A highlights what was reiterated to the respondents at the time of the interview. Each interviewer explained the nature and purpose of the research, the organisation that each interviewer represented and that we had been funded by the European Commission to carry out research into the problem of women who had slept rough and who may also have had experiences of domestic abuse or violence. It was agreed that at this point each interviewer

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Getting below the surface of women’s rough sleeping

would go through the agreed definitions with respondents and use the opportunity to explain this in a way and with language that was appropriate for each country. All the partners also agreed that at this point it would be appropriate to emphasise to respondents that we were interested in hearing about their valuable experiences and that everything each respondent shared during the course of the interview would be treated with complete confidence and could never be attributed to any individual. We also asked them for permission for the interview to be digitally recorded. Although this permission was never declined, in the event that it had been, the interviewer would have taken handwritten notes. Subsequent to the interview, the recordings were transcribed and for those conducted in Hungarian, Spanish or Swedish, they were also translated back into English before being analysed by the project coordinators at the University of Wolverhampton. The digital recordings were then deleted and according to the terms of reference of the Daphne funders, the transcribed copies of all interviews were transferred to locked cabinets where they must be kept for five years before being destroyed. It is probably relevant to note at this stage that one of the main criticisms that has been levelled at grounded theory is that you will always start from a theoretical base, no matter what. It is true that we undertook a literature and policy review in all the countries in the study, but this review focused on legislation, policy and current provision relating to women rough sleepers. We purposefully did not look at the literature on theory with regard to women’s homelessness until after the research interviews had been carried out because we felt that this may influence the signals we got from the women rough sleepers. We may have read into the data what the previous theories were saying or may have ‘led’ our interviewees to emphasise certain aspects of their homelessness more than others. We felt that this was inappropriate and that any theories should emerge from the data, and then be compared to previous theoretical assertions either for similarities or differences. We felt that this was the best way to allow further theory to emerge from the data where the main attraction lay in the possibility of starting a study with a not entirely blank sheet of paper, but one where the data would lead the research. Interviewer bias can be a problem and we wanted to minimise this or eliminate it if possible. It is important to be self-aware in this sense. The relevance of conducting face to face qualitative interviews was that we needed to ask the homeless women about their experiences, to understand what they had to say, to gather facts from them as to the

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circumstances of their homelessness, what led to it, what form it took, what effects it had on them, but also to gain some meaning from this – the story behind their experiences. This allowed for more in-depth discussion of issues that arose during the course of the interviews, for notes to be made about emerging themes and issues of particular of interest and, inevitably, sometimes the shocking things that were said. This method also enabled us to follow up things that were said at the time and to gauge the responses. Undertaking fieldwork like this is far more time intensive and emotionally draining than might be thought. Time is required to set up the interviews in the first place. This is a very difficult task with hard to reach or vulnerable groups. If you have a captive audience in prison, for example, that might be one thing, however, the hoops that have to be jumped through to get access even then are significant. In our case, we had to access an extremely hard to reach and vulnerable group of people who in the main kept their homelessness hidden and the only way of accessing them was through the networks of homeless NGOs and charities with whom we made contact. Even after making contact with providers, persuading them of the benefits of taking part in the research was difficult. Service providers were also understandably protective of the customers with whom they dealt and certainly did not want to put them through unnecessarily traumatic re-telling of the circumstances that had led to their homelessness in the first place. Thought and sensitivity must be given to the approach that is used here. We felt it was appropriate to emphasise not only the anonymous nature of taking part in the research, but also that it could be seen as providing help to others in the same situation and vital information to policy makers subsequently in producing more effective ways of working with and assisting women rough sleepers. We wanted women rough sleepers who took part in the study to feel recognised and valued and that their contribution was a vitally important one. Our open ended semi-structured interview thus had the potential to be conversational to allow for other issues to be discussed if they arose, for the researcher to stray off the exact path of the interview schedule if necessary in order to follow up important information. This is a better way of conducting an interview but it does require a great deal of skill on the part of the interviewer. Imagine walking into a room to meet someone you have never seen before – someone who is vulnerable, probably suspicious. Making a connection with your interviewee is often critical but there are also drawbacks, particularly if what they tell you is traumatic in nature. The interviewer cannot help but be drawn into the world of the interviewee. Asking people

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Getting below the surface of women’s rough sleeping

about difficult experiences and sensitive issues is a skilled undertaking but it also has an impact on your own emotions. The skill of the researcher includes good organisation beforehand and for an interviewer to rehearse what is going to be asked and how, and the manner in which this will be done. This may vary depending on the situation or type of interviewee. You need to present to the interviewee that you are in control of the research, that you know all about it and can explain it to them in a straightforward way that can be easily understood. More important is to explain their importance to the study, why their experiences are crucial in helping to understand the issues in question better and to help to change things for the better in the future, or to enhance knowledge and understanding of their experiences. Later chapters of this book will focus in detail on the analysis and the outcomes from the data. What was also important in terms of the methodology of this project was to gather relevant, timely and unique data to highlight the issues relating to women’s homelessness, to enhance knowledge about this and to suggest recommendations for best practice and for policy makers. We felt that it was also important to use this research to work towards a more informed theory of women’s homelessness. As we mentioned previously, the specificities of carrying out qualitative research within groups of vulnerable and hard to reach individuals has both advantages and disadvantages. In particular, qualitative inquiry of this type often has auto ethnographic dimensions, which are largely ignored. We feel however, that it is important for potential researchers to acknowledge the emotional investment that is often required of ethnographic fieldworkers studying what Jewkes (2012) describes as ‘stigmatised and/or vulnerable “others” in settings where differential indices of power, authority, vulnerability, and despair are felt more keenly than most’. Often, the emotional investment employed in adopting the qualitative, ethnographic story telling approach to research is largely obliterated by a focus on findings, outcomes and analysis. However, this misses the depth of understanding which can be gained from a more detailed discussion about the process of doing that research, including experiences of working in the field, the emotional investment involved in personal encounters that can affect methodological and theoretical orientations and discussion about the effect of this on the validity of social research. As we have said, the underlying methodology adopted subsequently in the analysis of the data, which was both ‘descriptive’ and ‘explanatory’ commenced by adopting a grounded theory approach. This proved useful in identifying the elements underpinning the conditions of

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women who sleep rough, but less so in explaining how and why they slept rough. This involved a series of questions that were informed by the literature review and used within the face-to-face interviews with service providers and the rough sleepers. All interviews were recorded, translated (where appropriate) and then analysed. The descriptive analysis was later supported by a realistic evaluation approach (Pawson and Tilley, 1997), which focuses on the inter-relationships between the prevailing context (for rough sleeping), the mechanisms (triggers for sleeping rough and interventions) and the outcomes (the impact of sleeping rough and interventions) in an effort to explain the relationships between the ‘why’, the ‘how’ and the ‘with what impact’ questions contained within the research. The job of the interviewer is to put that interviewee at ease immediately. The skill required of the interviewer should not be underestimated when conducting this type of research. Ideally it is probably necessary to have some training or to shadow a experienced colleague undertaking this type of fieldwork to see how it is done. It requires good organisation beforehand and for an interviewer to rehearse what is going to be asked and how, and the manner in which this will be done. This may vary depending on the situation or type of interviewee. How you present to the interviewee is also important. If you are going to a hostel, don’t wear your best dress or suit, try to be low key and blend into your surroundings; appearance can help to put an interviewee at ease. If you look like someone from the government coming to interview them it may have a detrimental effect on what they are prepared to tell you! This might not be politically correct but in my experience it is true. What effect does this have on the researcher? Methodologically, it is probably true to say that for the time that you are interviewing, you become part of the world of the person you are studying. Social interactions during this time with the person in question are crucial. The way the researcher responds to answers and listens to and observes the interviewee all help to shape both the interaction and flow of data collection and the subsequent interpretation of it. Schwandt (1994, 124) comments that: ‘The researcher engaged in symbolic interaction is expected to interpret actions, transcend rich description and develop a theory which incorporates concepts of self, language, social setting and social object.’ The resultant findings of such research should be able to create a detailed and rich picture of the context and experiences of those who have been interviewed through the systematic collection of data which can be interpreted and developed through a process of analysis which

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Getting below the surface of women’s rough sleeping

offers an insight into the themes emerging from the respondents in the study in relation not only to facts about the issue of rough sleeping, but also in relation to their emotions; what happened to them, their opinions and values about rough sleeping and their knowledge and subjective experiences. Chapter Two details how we developed our new theory of women’s homelessness based on this empirical research.

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TWO

Towards a theory of women’s homelessness: social dysfunction theory To date, few theories specific to women’s homelessness have been suggested. One of the reasons for this is that research into the nature, causes, outcomes of and solutions to homelessness has primarily focused on homelessness generally or as it relates to men rather than women. The numbers of homeless men in the UK and the rest of Europe are greater than those of women and therefore the majority of the current research and statistics on homelessness is more relevant to the concept of homelessness as experienced by men. However, our research (Moss and Singh, 2012) demonstrates that homelessness for women has certain elements and characteristics that distinguish it from the homelessness of men and for this reason it seems logical to suggest that from this analysis, some theoretical framework should be proposed. This is not to suggest that women’s homelessness is more important than men’s, merely that it is different in nature and that the relative lack of research into the specificity of women’s homelessness merits further investigation. We want to set out the current theories relating to homelessness, demonstrating how the findings of our research highlight certain unique features of the homelessness of women and consequently proposes that a new theory of ‘women’s homelessness’ should be based upon these findings.

Current theories of homelessness Grimshaw (2008) provides a useful starting point since it is, in essence a literature review of what he calls ‘the plight of homelessness’ within families in England. Grimshaw’s conclusions include the fact that homelessness is an ‘extreme manifestation of poverty’ and that the definition of homelessness is ‘heavily influenced by political ideologies’ (2008, 1). For example, he asserts that right-wing politicians define homeless people as responsible for their own plight’ (2008, 5). This is something that has also been referred to by Murray (1990) and Carlen (1996). Arguably this bias was also reinforced by Tony Blair in his foreword to the Social Exclusion Unit report on rough sleeping (Social

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Exclusion Unit, 1998) where he indicated that rough sleeping is ‘bad for the rest of society’ explaining that ‘many people feel intimidated by rough sleepers, beggars and street drinkers, and rough sleeping can blight areas and damage business and tourism’. It is thus the case that society relegates homeless people, symbolically at least – and according to Lifton (1992) – ‘to the living dead’. There are various theories of general homelessness. However, Neale (1997) calls for less simplistic explanations rather than structural causes or personal inadequacies and suggests alternative theories should be explored, such as feminism, poststructuralism, postmodernism, structuration and critical theory. (This assumes of course that one agrees we are now in a postmodern age rather than in later modernity.) Fitzpatrick and Jones (2005) suggests that causal mechanisms for homelessness may exist at four levels: first, within economic structures, where poverty is the main driver; second, within housing structures, where inadequate housing supply and affordability has an impact on homelessness; third, within patriarchal and other dysfunctional family structures, where domestic violence, child abuse, weak social support and relationship breakdown all contribute to a social situation where homelessness is a likely result. Finally, he suggests that individual attributes can contribute to the risk of homelessness. For example, if an individual’s personal resilience is undermined in some way – including mental health problems, addiction, substance abuse, and lack of self-esteem – this will also increase the risk factors for homelessness. Specifically, Fitzpatrick posits that if an individual experiences two or more of these factors it increases the likelihood of them becoming homeless. Johnson et al (1991) suggest that two theoretical approaches have concentrated debates about homelessness to structural factors and individual or agency factors. Structural theory explains the reasons for homelessness within social and economic factors while agency theory concentrates on a) the responsibility of individuals for their homelessness (thus considering aspects of blame and stereotyping individual into categories such as alcoholics, beggars, losers, wasters, scroungers) and b) the personal failure or inadequacy of individuals, for which they cannot be held responsible due to factors such as mental illness. Feminist theory has also contributed to this debate, taking a critical approach to authority and bureaucracy within the welfare state. Specifically writers such as Watson and Austerberry (1986), Williams (1987) and Banion and Stubbs (1986) have argued that historically women have been discriminated against within the housing sphere by being unable to access housing independent from men, based on

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Towards a theory of women’s homelessness

the patriarchal assumptions of the welfare state in relation to housing needs and allocation. Neale (1997: 1) comments that: Such feminist analysis has usefully drawn attention to many of the limitations of existing theories of homelessness and welfare and has highlighted some of the shortcomings of existing policy and practice responses. It is not, however, unproblematic. This is because welfare policy has often supported women and women have frequently promoted and defended forms of state provision. Moreover, a critique of welfare and housing based on essentialist notions of womanhood and simplistic binary oppositions (such as male/female, home/work and subject/object) can ignore the complexity and ambiguity of the relationship of individual women to welfare institutions and provision. Feminist theory within the sphere of homelessness has therefore had to evolve to recognise both the oppression and non-oppression of women and to avoid generalising the female population to the unquestioning powerless female. Theories of poststructuralism and postmodernism have also contributed to the discussion about women and homelessness with poststructuralism placing emphasis on subjectivity and irrationality in order to challenge arguments posited for individual oppressive forces, such as patriarchy for example. Weedon (1987) alongside the historian and social philosopher Michel Foucault (1979) furthered thinking concerning ideologies of truth, social control and functionalism where micro-power operates by maintaining existing power relations and inequalities in order to sustain their own ‘regimes of truth’. While it is true that homelessness is not usually caused specifically by the implementation of state policies designed to enforce homelessness producing outcomes (although, as we will see later in this book, the current regime in Hungary may be getting close to this), there will, of course, in any state be policies which increase the likelihood of homelessness for certain individuals in society. Research tells us that these individuals are more likely to be those having the well-rehearsed characteristics alluded to by so many homelessness writers. Our research has revealed findings about the specific issue of women’s homelessness, including the fact that many of the current issues that prevail in relation to this social problem have common themes across Europe. It is pertinent to give an overview of these common problems to distinguish both the similarities and differences with the homelessness of the male population and thus to emphasise the need for a theory of

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homelessness that is specific to women. When we embarked upon this two-year study, our preliminary research into the prevalence of rough sleeping demonstrated that there were consistently high numbers within the target group in different countries. For example, within the UK (West Midlands region) DCLG (2008) estimated the number of rough sleepers on any given night to be 498. The Combined Homelessness and Information Network (DCLG, 2012), which records interactions between homeless people and outreach services in London, reported that in 2012–13, 6,437 people were sleeping rough in London. There is however a lack of detailed information about homelessness in the UK, and this is especially the case of with women’s homelessness. According to research carried out by the Crisis (2014), 20 per cent of women had become homeless as a result of domestic violence, 10 per cent had not engaged with any services and 40 per cent had actually been excluded from services. Similarly in Sweden, where Malmö’s Integrated Domestic Violence Programme won the European Crime Prevention Award 2007 and its temporary accommodation for girls is a recognised best practice model, in 2009, 860 persons were homeless, 231 of which were women. In the Andalusia region of Spain, homeless figures have been reported to be 478 in Seville, 397 in Málaga, 242 in Jaén, 190 in Granada, 126 in Huelva, 104 in Córdoba, 83 in Cádíz and around 80 in Almería on any given night. This data however is general and not disaggregated by sex so there is no research specific to women within Spain. In Budapest 2008 figures estimate that there are between 700–1,500 people sleeping rough at any one time, of which 20–21 per cent are women. In general terms however, the research found that the extent of the problem was not really known. The diversity of women rough sleepers identified in the UK by Cahill (2009) – and which established that this group can include all types of women, including professionals – is also mirrored across Europe. This diversity within the target group is also constantly changing, and can include immigrant groups (especially those with specific problems), sex workers, and women in unstable jobs. There is fluidity to the target group therefore which is not always taken into account currently by agencies. Problems of co-morbidity were common to women rough sleepers across Europe. More specifically, between 70 and 100 per cent of women in the research sample reported sleeping rough as a direct result of domestic abuse. Homeless women and women rough sleepers had a very low visible presence and significant numbers suffered from mental health problems. Drug and alcohol abuse or dependence was a significant problem as was the issue of large numbers of children disconnected from their rough sleeping mothers. Our study also

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Towards a theory of women’s homelessness

established that in the countries within the study, there was a marked lack of suitable provision for women rough sleepers. So while homeless men and women share some essential characteristics, this research suggests (within the cohorts of respondents interviewed in the four countries in the study, which may not necessarily be generalisable to a wider population) that the distinct characteristics of homeless women are threefold. First, the significant numbers who reported becoming homeless as a direct result of domestic abuse – which we have later in this chapter termed ‘causation’, second, their lack of visibility on the street – which we have termed ‘experience,’ and third, their subsequent experience of a lack of female only provision which we will term ‘impact’. These factors effectively equate to the ‘why, what and how’ of rough sleeping for women in the sense that the critical issues of women on the street are: • Why did they get there? – through domestic abuse; • What is their experience on the street? – invisibility and lack of engagement with outreach or services; • How are they dealt with? – that is, within an agency framework where there is currently a lack of women’s only services. So how can we construct a theoretical framework from this?

Towards a theory of women’s homelessness In 1986 Watson and Austerberry published a feminist perspective on housing provision and allocation concluding that at that time, policy specifically excluded certain forms of households, such as single women, upon whom these processes have a profound impact. This had previously been researched by Watson (1984) who suggested that definitions of homelessness shift according to the structure of the household and tend to be family-centred – which has adverse implications for single people. The meaning of homelessness and home was later analysed by Somerville (1992) who suggested that home has several dimensions of meaning. These are shelter, hearth, privacy, roots, abode and paradise. Homelessness can therefore – to a very large extent – be represented as the semantic contrary of home. There are, of course also methodological difficulties in explaining homelessness including a lack of longitudinal studies that track people over time, over-emphasis (in US literature) on individual pathology, and a more general failure to examine the structural causes of homelessness. Within UK literature there appears to be an over reliance on cross sectional,

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Women rough sleepers in Europe

self-report surveys which are open to bias (in terms of aspects of recall, exaggeration or being somewhat interviewer led) and a prevalence of charity and campaigning group literature at risk of spinning the facts to suit their agendas. Added to this in the UK there has historically been a reliance in this sphere on surveys which have been commissioned by the government and which may be heavy on facts but somewhat lighter on interpretation. Neale (1997) and Haber and Toro (2004) suggest that there has been an over-use of small, unrepresentative samples selected on the basis of unclear and/or inconsistent definitions of homelessness and a failure to use comparison groups to distinguish the characteristics of homeless people from those who are ‘housed poor’, which leads to methodological inconsistencies. US studies of women who were homeless looked at issues of social connectivity or ‘embeddedness’ with housed families having larger social networks than homeless families as well as more extended family living nearby whom they saw more often. Interestingly from the point of view of the findings of the research which informs this book, the relationship between domestic violence and homelessness has been mentioned within the literature before. For example, Cumella (1999) reported that in a study, nine out of ten families chose to become homeless to escape violence. In other studies, such as that by O’Callaghan and Dominian (1996), violence, together with a cycle of homelessness, formed part of a wider range of problems in the lives of young mothers with inappropriate or unhealthy relationships with a succession of abusive partners; this resulted in feelings of loneliness (as well as homelessness) which leads to further bad relationships, thus repeating the cycle. McNaughton (2008: 1) suggests that: Previous analyses of homelessness have been accused of lacking theoretical and conceptual clarity. This study aimed to rectify this through an analysis of data collected using a qualitative longitudinal research methodology on the transitions through homelessness made by 28 people in a Scottish city. Three key factors were found to influence the transitions which the participants made – the access to different forms of capital (the resources) which they had; their social networks and relationships; and their experiences of ‘edgework’ (experiences of traumatic risk situations, such as domestic violence, or of voluntary risk taking such as drug use, that encapsulate the need to negotiate risk on both emotional and physical levels).

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Towards a theory of women’s homelessness

These factors may affect anyone’s lives, but only when their resources are depleted to the point where they have to rely on the state in this way do they become ‘homeless’ and enter the material and emotional ‘reality’ of homelessness. This is the new theory on homelessness, causation and individual actions developed here – the ‘stressed’ theory. Stewart (2010) in his review of this book comments that: While this theoretical explanation is thorough and provides the missing causation necessary for the robustness of the new orthodoxy, a few issues are raised. Primarily, with late modernity being seen as important at increasing the number of people at risk of homelessness as well as the number of risks, how does the conceptualisation of edgework apply to the experience of becoming homeless before this period? Additionally, the book’s focus upon substance use does not transfer well into explorations of youth homelessness where family troubles are the largest cause, although a similar removal of resources can be seen in leaving the parental home and disruption to education and social life. Overall McNaughton puts forward an important theoretical development that offers a synthesis of the previous maximalist and minimalist theories of homelessness and contains a strong conceptualisation of agency and structure. For this reason it is likely to see continued engagement within future studies by both those who agree and disagree with its conclusions. From our research it appears that McNaughton’s is the most recent attempt to construct a theory of homelessness but, as with some of its predecessors, this theory is generic in that it can be applied to both men and women. (It should be noted of course that McNaughton was not attempting to devise a theoretical framework of homelessness specifically for women.) It also seems that homelessness is understood, first and foremost, as an ideological construct, created by our experiences, our intellects and our imaginations (Somerville, 1992). However, thinking about homelessness is dominated by accounts that assume that it is what Durkheim (1982) called a ‘social fact’, that is, a truth about social relations that can be measured or quantified independently of our experiences of those relations. Arguably homelessness is a societal fact in that the system can never fully accommodate everyone. That

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Women rough sleepers in Europe

is, there is never the perfect number of jobs because economies both shrink/grow and because society does not produce people who can always slot into the accepted way of doing things – either because they are unable or unwilling to take part in a capitalist system. The question remains, is this because something in their lives has ‘gone wrong’, resulting in inadequate interpellation into the system (Althusser, 2008)? We are not suggesting in our research that homelessness is necessarily a rejection of the capitalist, democratic system (and none of the women we interviewed appeared to perceive it as such). However, in one sense the women in this study were indeed opting out of what might be termed ‘mainstream society’ (a domestic situation) because at the time their personal situations were actually worse than the prospect of being homeless. However, these factors did not occur in isolation of the prevailing socio-economic factors of the time. For this reason it is important not to limit a theory of women’s homelessness to a theory of the causation of their homelessness. It is important to contextualise it against the background of what we found in this research to be common social and economic factors and because of this combination of causal, social and economic variables, we have termed this new theory ‘social dysfunction theory’ since it encapsulates both personal, social, economic and policy dysfunctions surrounding the specific problem of women’s homelessness and combines both agency and structure theories. We are framing this within theories grounded in late modernity since these help to explain the factors that appear to prevail in relation to women’s risk and experience of homelessness, alongside corresponding social and economic variables. For this reason it is pertinent to explain this in more detail before elucidating how the new theory of social dysfunction relates to this.

Late modernity and homelessness There are differing opinions among academics about whether society is currently in postmodernism or late modernity. Proponents for late modernity include Giddens (1991), Beck (1992) and Bauman (1992; 1998) who argue that contemporary societies are actually a continuation of existing institutional and cultural developments which are being continually re-examined, reassessed and reformed rather than representing a completely new era of postmodernism. Modernity was seen as an innovative era: ‘a complete break with past times, a fresh start on the basis of radically new principles’ (Kumar, 2002, 80). It can also be associated with a move from what Durkheim (1982) called the mechanical to the organic society; an era in which social systems

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Towards a theory of women’s homelessness

are in a state of anomie; that is, common values and meanings are no longer understood or accepted and new values and meanings have not developed. Durkheim posited that in this society people would be in a situation of hopelessness, futility and despair. His concept of ‘anomie’ therefore referred to a condition of relative normlessness where individuals no longer have a sense of continuity or obligation and thus reject social bonds, feeling that the state is indifferent to their needs and that society is unpredictable and lacking order. Although modernity, as a period of time, is argued to have reached its end by some, others dispute this, arguing that we are not in fact in a period of postmodernity, just in the closing stages of modernity; that is, late modernity. Regardless of which approach one chooses to pursue, it is generally agreed that we are on the edge of one era or another. ‘It is argued by many, we stand at the opening of a new era, to which the social sciences must respond and which is taking us beyond modernity itself ’ (Giddens, 1990, 1). More important: what is the effect of this on society and what is the relevance of this to the issue of homelessness? Macionis et al (2012, 25) contend that within late modernity, ‘More and more, people are not given a clear blueprint on how to live their lives, as they often were in the past. Instead they have to ask: what kind of life do I want to lead?’ Beck (1992) asserts that we currently live in a ‘risk’ society; a qualitatively distinct period of second modernity, in which there is an increased ‘freedom’ for people to construct their own individual history and socio-biography and increased individualisation, choice and risk. Similarly Giddens (1991) has argued that processes of social change have enabled individuals to more fully and subjectively determine their own lifestyles and destinies with Ball et al (2000, 2) asserting that ‘they see their decision-making as individual “choice” rather than the product of structured constraints’. In relation to the causal factors for homelessness which are well rehearsed as originating in dysfunctional families with substance abuse, poor health, abuse and institutionalisation as key issues, it is also clear that individuals who experience these factors and who go on to become homeless, also lack other characteristics which may have given them better life chances. These include lack of social networks and economic capital. If we then add to this mix the anomie of the late modernist era, which includes the erosion of the welfare state in the UK, alongside welfare and funding cuts for homeless organisations which have been proliferating across the EU in the current economic crisis, we then reach a situation in which Forrest and Vermeer (1999, 17) contend that ‘Homelessness is…a general metaphor for severe and typically multifaceted experiences of marginality and exclusion from

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Women rough sleepers in Europe

mainstream society.’ Thus, our assertion is that the social dysfunction theory of women’s homelessness is grounded in the theories of late modernity where anomic social change means that there is no longer a clear ideology for women’s roles in society; and (arguably this is a positive thing) social norms have changed, enabling women to be more independent of men in terms of income and property and thus the choice to leave an unsatisfactory (and in most cases with the women in our study, abusive) relationship becomes an option as not before. Gender stereotypes are somewhat relinquished but the incapacity of some women to effectively deal with the problems that resultant homelessness brings means that homelessness effectively becomes a symptom of the failure of social structures and mechanisms which have not kept up with the developments into late modernity. Thus homelessness becomes a dysfunctional outcome of the changes in wider society. This can be evidenced by the absence or paucity of female only homeless provision and women only shelters because structural mechanisms have failed to take account of the changes in society that have produced more homeless women. Additionally, attitudes to homelessness have not developed either generically or specifically in relation to women, who, it could be argued, are still seen by society through nineteenth-century eyes. The homeless woman must be the architect of her own demise: a beggar at the least or, at the worst, a prostitute. This research emphasises that the majority view of society is that women’s homelessness is ‘unusual’, not a priority and that the true extent of women’s homelessness is not realised or accepted. Thus it could be argued within the ideology of late modernity that there has been little, or certainly not enough acceptance of the changing roles of women in society.

Social dysfunction theory Our proposition therefore is for a new theory, which is grounded in the ideology of late modernity and which focuses on the specific findings of our research in relation to three areas in which we have identified issues contributing to the homelessness of women and its subsequent impact upon them. Our contention is that within these areas, there is a systemic failure or ‘social dysfunction’ in acknowledging the factors that specifically and uniquely contribute to women’s homelessness, as opposed to that of men and also in responding to it. The three areas where we contend from our findings that social dysfunctions of particular and distinct pertinence to women occur are first within the causal mechanisms of women’s homelessness; second

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Towards a theory of women’s homelessness

within the specific experiences of women on the street, and third within the impact that this has on homeless women in terms of their access to services. Our first proposition – causation – could also be seen as the ‘why’ element of our theory, where our findings indicated that, across all the countries in our study, between 70 and 100 per cent of the women whom we interviewed said that they became homeless as a direct result of domestic abuse. This factor can of course be positioned alongside other more well-rehearsed causal factors such as general abuse and/or violence within the family from childhood or general family dysfunction leading to abusive or inappropriate relationships characterised by poverty, patriarchy and control; lack of normal social networks; insufficient education and knowledge and surrounding issues of appropriate relationships, self-respect and confidence. However, it was singular to the women in our study that their homelessness was caused by domestic abuse. Second, we have identified that on the street women hid their homelessness, failing to engage with agencies or street outreach and thus became almost invisible. We term this factor ‘experience’ since it relates to ‘what’ they experienced while actually on the street. Again this factor can be positioned alongside other street factors including abuse emanating from social attitudes and stereotypes towards women from the general public such as spitting or throwing things; peer abuse from other homeless people congregating in gangs; partner abuse from inappropriate relationships that women may enter into to provide them with security on the street; complex problems, issues of comorbidity and severe mental health problems often including dual diagnosis. Our third and final proposition from these research findings specifically is in terms of the impact upon women and the responses of agencies within the era of late modernity where the regulation and criminalisation of public spaces and socio-economic factors including the current EU-wide economic crisis, have affected the work of services for homeless women. This we have termed ‘impact’ and is the ‘how’ they are subsequently dealt with. This sits within a framework of a general lack of women-only services; lack of accommodation; the continuing problem of empty properties not being used throughout the EU; lack of integrated care and multi-agency working; generalised lack of awareness about the extent of the problem of homelessness for women and the specific problems it raises as distinct from men. In this sense it is what might be termed a classic ‘wicked problem’ (Rittel and Webber, 1973).

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In the following section we want to highlight the theoretical underpinning of each of these aspects of women’s homelessness. However, it is important to note that there is more work that needs to be done on the exposition and development of this theoretical framework, which the limits of this publication do not allow for. What we suggest here therefore are the beginnings of a theoretical proposition that we intend to develop within subsequent publications.

Causal mechanisms: the ‘why’ factor The casual mechanism of homelessness is perhaps the most wellrehearsed aspect of the study of homelessness. For many of the women in this study the risk of homelessness was rooted in childhood – usually through dysfunctional families where domestic violence was often seen as the norm or at least something which occurred with frequency. Running away from home to escape this sometimes resulted in homelessness while other women reported forming relationships with men that were also characterised by abuse. These women later become homeless escaping from these abusive relationships. In our samples, it was men who were abusing women and this was the main reason for them being homeless. This, as mentioned previously, was not due to an absence of work. This suggests that one main line of enquiry might be: why is society producing men who abuse women in a domestic situation? Has this always been the case? Is it more socially acceptable now? What is the role of the media in this? Are men threatened by the increasing economic independence of women? In the UK 70 per cent had experienced abuse from a partner(s), all of whom reported that this was what led them ultimately to become homeless and 40 per cent of women rough sleepers said that they had also experienced abuse within the family home before this. To illustrate this, it is pertinent to share some of the comments made by women we interviewed: ‘I needed to get out of the house because of sexual abuse by my father. He sexually abused all his daughters including me. I think my mother knew but did nothing about it. I left my husband who also abused me physically and slept rough for years.’ ‘My partner physically abused me and I decided to leave him and the children. I didn’t see them again until they were teenagers.’

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‘My husband would throw me out at night when he was drunk. I slept in a cupboard behind the local freezer shop. I was brought up in hostels and children’s homes from the age of one year. I had six sisters and my father was an alcoholic. My husband broke my ribs, tore my hair out, perforated my ear drum and head butted me. Eventually I reported him and he was sent to prison; I have a permanent non-molestation order against him.’ ‘I got abused by my dad, my granddad and my uncle and my mum used to beat the crap out of me so it was always there…get married or stay in that situation – what would you do? We’ve got to try and stop that, there’s got to be a way of stopping that before it gets that far.’ While it is certainly the case that previous research has accepted the role that domestic abuse plays within a woman’s decision making about leaving the home, we do not believe that figures such as this have been available before. Our contention therefore is that the extent of social dysfunction leading to the ultimate homeless of women is an under-researched and little acknowledged fact which requires further research but which ultimately lends weight to our theoretical assertion that within the era of later modernity, knowledge of and responses to this social fact are inadequate and are failing those women who experience this trauma.

Experience: the ‘what‘ factor On the street, our research found that women are more ‘invisible’ than men but they can quickly become a part of homeless subcultures, getting involved in petty crime, street drinking, drug taking/dealing, prostitution or exchanging sexual favours for a bed/a drink/drugs. On the street women were much less likely to engage with outreach and their experience was of a lack of female only services. This could be termed an act of omission by homeless support agencies and as such, the question is, can this be part of the explanation for continued/ unnecessary homelessness? In Spain, a senior council figure interviewed by our researchers in Malaga commented that: ‘[Knowledge about women rough sleepers] is wholly inadequate; I think that triple or quadruple the number of women suffer discrimination. They are invisible women;

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Women rough sleepers in Europe

they may have addiction problems, they can be victims of domestic violence and about all of this nothing is known.’ In terms of women’s invisibility on the street, Watson (1999, 96) has commented that ‘homeless women’s bodies…represent a challenge to the feminine body…by sleeping on the street…[the unaccommodated woman] starkly disrup[ts] the public/private boundary…the private, and the sphere associated with feminine domesticity and sexuality [seeps] in to the public in a disruptive and threatening [way].’ Wardhaugh (1999) similarly explains that the invisibility of women on the street is a result of the stigma attached to this, which is rooted in historical conceptions of women’s homelessness and prostitution being inextricably linked. In the nineteenth century, this was socially intolerable and thus, to render the homeless woman invisible was a more preferable option. By the mid-twentieth century, and certainly from the 1960s onwards, with the seminal broadcast of ‘Cathy Come Home’,1 ignoring homeless women became less of an option. However, McNaughton (2008) comments that at this point ‘women’s homelessness was still more likely than men’s to be viewed through a pathological lens: any woman who had “succumbed” to (or “chosen”) a life on the streets being viewed as prostitutes rather than as “homeless”.’ Thus we have particularly pejorative and oppressive responses to women’s homelessness. The stereotyping and labelling of homeless women is still evident in this research which indicates that women on the street often experience a variety of forms of abuse emanating from social attitudes and stereotypes towards women. This is not to suggest that homeless men do not suffer similar experiences but these attitudes to women may help to explain their invisibility on the street as compared with their male homeless counterparts.

Impact: the ‘how’ factor Within the economic situations that currently prevail across Europe, our study demonstrated that socio-economic factors were affecting women’s experience of homelessness. Specifically, financial cut backs and welfare reforms are affecting the work of services for homeless women. Within a situation where female only provision is already sparse

A 1966 BBC television play by Jeremy Sandford, produced by Tony Garnett and directed by Ken Loach, which focused on homelessness, unemployment and the rights of mothers to keep their own children. 1

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Towards a theory of women’s homelessness

and there is a general lack of women only services and accommodation, the continuing problem of lack of integrated care and multi-agency working and a generalised lack of awareness about the extent of the problem of homelessness for women is critical. The specific problems it raises as distinct from men alongside the tendency to criminalise poverty and homelessness in various ways within jurisdictions are important. In terms of current gaps in provision for women rough sleepers, UK service providers said that there was a need for more emergency accommodation, there is limited women only services and housing for women with complex needs, poor arrangements for women on release from custody and local authority housing strategies do not mention women rough sleepers specifically – perhaps they should. In Hungary, hostels are too expensive; there is cultural dismissal of the abuse of women by the authorities including the police, limited provision for older women and women with children and or pets and no women only night shelters. There is no social housing provision whatsoever in Hungary at the present time. In Sweden, one of the main problems is that there is very limited housing of all types. Added to this there is insufficient street outreach and very few shelters or crisis centres and too few places in existing shelters or crisis centres. In Spain, while there are shelters, specific houses and resources that provide information, counselling and legal support for homeless women who are victims of gender violence, in Seville, many service providers reported that more crisis, or emergency accommodation was required. As regards current legislation and guidance: in the UK there is no specific mention of women rough sleepers in existing legislation – it is all generalised under rough sleeping (including the governments ‘No Second Night Out’ policy). In spite of over 50 years of UK government policies and numerous pieces of legislation, homelessness persists. There is no single piece of legislation that deals with homelessness and no statutory duty to accommodate roofless single people. Access to services and assistance is patchy; there is no agreement on the root causes of homelessness and therefore no coherent policy. Family circumstances are accepted as being a factor but there have been no developments in family policies to reflect this. The situation now appears, if anything, worse than before, because what Ravenhill (2008) calls ‘the homelessness industry’ has since monopolised the definition of homelessness, and governments have more actively targeted for interventions those populations whom they choose to label as ‘homeless’ (or ‘socially excluded’ or ‘multiply excluded’ or suffering from ‘deep exclusion’). The facticity (Sartre, 1993) of homelessness has grown stronger over the years, tending to eclipse those few

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Women rough sleepers in Europe

serious attempts to understand its ideological construction. Defining homelessness in a certain way means that it will and can only be dealt with in a certain way – that is, we are always already implicated in the response by the way we ask the question. From our research we feel that the way we ask questions about homelessness needs to change and therefore perhaps any worthwhile explanation of homelessness should specifically address the nature of the relationship between individuals’ experiences of homelessness and the whole environment in which those individuals operate. For these reasons we would posit this new social dysfunction theory of women’s homelessness which, though our empirical research builds on that previously suggested by McNaughton, goes further in combining both the personal, social and economic factors which we see as being integral to an understanding of women’s homelessness specifically. The empirical evidence that this research lends to this new theory thus lies in the profiles and characteristics of those women but also in the way that current systems deal with and respond (or arguably fail to respond) to them within the current socio-economic climate, which extends across Europe. McNaughton (2008, 116) makes some insightful observations about the relationship between homeless people and the welfare state, commenting that such individuals could be said to have gone ‘over the edge’ due to a lack of personal coping mechanisms. This results in: [those individuals] becoming targeted by this system. Those who go over the edge are labelled as irresponsible, as failed individuals, and the task of the welfare services is then to discipline them into becoming responsible agents. The irony is that such discipline denies the agency and reduces the status of those so targeted: ‘these people are not perceived as “capable” of making the right choices and living independently – they are in effect not seen as “real” with the same needs and wants as others. The final aspect with which we want to deal in relation to the issue of impact is the effect of late modernity upon social disorganisation and the failure of mechanisms to respond to the homeless and their use of public spaces, including the ongoing criminalisation of homelessness. The history and context of the control of public spaces, how this is regulated currently, and the politics of homelessness and community governance are of great relevance to this final issue of the impact upon women’s homelessness and as an example of poor public policy.

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Towards a theory of women’s homelessness

It is relevant to demonstrate that the mechanistic failure of agencies to respond adequately – or in this case appropriately – to the social condition of homelessness can be demonstrated most eloquently by the ongoing regulation of public spaces both in the UK and in other European jurisdictions. We will look specifically at how this plays out in two countries, Hungary and then the UK. In October 2013 the Hungarian parliament passed a law that allows local government to designate areas as being ‘homeless free’. In effect this means that in these designated area it is now a criminal offence to be homeless and a process of social clearance is again taking place in Hungary, as it did under the Hungarian Social Act 2011. Other laws have recently been enacted in Hungary, which make it illegal to remove unwanted items from the street in order to sell them. This is an activity that many homeless people undertake to support themselves. It is also illegal for the homeless to be in designated areas of the city that are classed as ‘World Heritage Sites’ or any others designated as ‘homeless free’ areas by the government. A further problem for those with no formal address in Hungary is that they are disenfranchised. While the homeless can access an ID card which allows them to attend a polling station to vote, in reality when they arrive at polling stations with this card, they are always turned away by officials who state that they are not at the ‘correct’ district polling station. Can it really be the case that if you have no home, you have no vote; you are therefore a non-citizen, living in the EU? This type of situation – the ongoing criminalisation of homelessness and poverty – is not only happening in Hungary. In the UK a form of clearance is also used against homeless people using the Vagrancy Act 1824 (and later versions of this legislation) and now provisions in the new Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 (ASCPA) will enhance this since it includes powers to ban certain activities from designated areas using public space protection orders (PSPOs). It has long been argued that existing laws to regulate the use of public space – such as those which are still enforceable under the Vagrancy Acts – are over-used, too broad and have been employed unjustly to interfere with law-abiding individuals. The danger is that new PSPO powers will only reinforce a heavy-handed approach to those who occupy the streets and will also have the potential to be abused since it has been suggested that in pushing this recent legislation through, the UK government has failed to introduce sufficient checks and balances on its implementation since they require less public consultation than Alcohol or Dog Control Areas. At the moment, PSPOs can be used by councils to ban homeless people from parks, and from begging

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Women rough sleepers in Europe

and rough sleeping in public places. They can easily be directed at particular groups, and thus there is potential for them to be used disproportionately or with discrimination in relation particularly to people who use public spaces. It is already the case that homeless people struggle to assert any form of ownership or basic human rights over the public spaces they have to occupy and this continues to be an underexplored area of socio-cultural research. Added to this, the stereotyping of homeless people as dangerous and generally untrustworthy with regard to their use of public space, has led to national and local policies that enforce laws that specifically criminalise homelessness. Laws which are used against the homeless, such as the Vagrancy Act 1824 and the ASCPA 2014 are thus seen as ‘quick-fix’ solutions – removing homeless people from sight. The problem is that they do not tackle the root causes of homelessness, nor do they assist homeless people in any way. This type of approach to the regulation of public spaces is not confined to Europe. In Fort Lauderdale, Florida, policy makers from the City Commission are on the verge of passing a new law that will make it illegal for anyone to store their personal possessions on public property and will allow police to confiscate them with 24-hours’ notice. Retrieval will cost what is termed a ‘reasonable charge for storage and removal’. Possessions not retrieved within 30 days will be destroyed and the driving factor behind this measure appears to be what has been termed ‘the city’s interest’ in aesthetics. Fort Lauderdale is not the only city to embrace new laws that criminalise people for being homeless. Many cities, including Columbia, Palo Alto, Raleigh and Tampa have enacted measures that make homeless people’s survival criminal and moreover, demonise them. This is, of course, not an effective or humane way to address the social problem of homelessness. It is interesting to compare these approaches with that in other US cities like Davis, California, where there has been on ongoing debate about the construction of public lockers where homeless people can safely store their possessions. Chirba et al (2013, 1B) report that: For about eight years, Lawson Snipes has been advocating for a place where the homeless in Davis could store their belongings in lockers while at work or a job interview. Snipes is the founder of a non-profit street publication, called the Spare Changer. He is also homeless himself. According to Snipes, it is tough to ace a job interview or perform well at work when you’re worrying about the safety of your possessions. The alternative, carrying all the possessions with you, is not much better.

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Towards a theory of women’s homelessness

So aside from continuing to use nineteenth-century legislation to criminalise poverty and homelessness, in the more recent past – and with one or two exceptions – there appears to have been an increasing move to enact laws that specifically criminalise homelessness. The argument for this seems to be concern about the use of public space with governments using such laws as a ‘quick-fix’ solution to remove homeless people from sight. This does not however address any of the underlying causes of homelessness. Moreover, there is a question about the constitutionality of laws that seek to prohibit certain types of behaviour such as sleeping in public. In the UK the Vagrancy Act 1824 was specifically enacted to target returning soldiers from the Napoleonic War who were subsequently sleeping on the streets of London. It represents one example of the oppressive and repressive measures that have and are being used against all types of people who use public places. For example, beggars, the homeless, street artists and even individuals collecting for charity. Today, this antiquated legislation is still used to move on the homeless particularly if a police officer thinks that person has been begging and fines can be imposed. It is however, somewhat futile to fine a homeless person, since they clearly would not have the money to pay a fine and this approach does nothing to solve the underlying problem of homelessness and poverty. This type of approach was recently summed up by Monbiot (2014b) who comments: Until the late 19th century, much of our city space was owned by private landlords. Squares were gated, turnpikes controlled streets. The great unwashed, many of whom had been expelled from the countryside by acts of enclosure, were also excluded from desirable parts of town. Social reformers and democratic movements tore down the barriers, and public space became a right, not a privilege. But social exclusion follows inequality as night follows day, and now, with little public debate, our city centres are again being privatised or semi-privatised. They are being turned by the companies that run them into soulless, cheerless, pasteurised piazzas, in which plastic policemen harry anyone loitering without intent to shop. Street life in these places is reduced to a tranceworld of consumerism, of conformity and atomisation, in which nothing unpredictable or disconcerting happens, a world made safe for selling mountains of pointless junk to tranquilised shoppers. Spontaneous gatherings of any other

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Women rough sleepers in Europe

kind – unruly, exuberant, open-ended, oppositional – are banned. Young, homeless and eccentric people are, in the eyes of those upholding this dead-eyed, sanitised version of public order, guilty until proven innocent. The perception and experiences of homeless people in relation to the public spaces they occupy and identify as their own, and the corresponding struggle to assert and enact citizenship rights, remains an under-explored area of socio-cultural research. Citizenship for the homeless is clearly influenced by numerous complex social interactions that take place in diverse locations. For homeless women, these interactions are influenced by their choice or need to remain invisible and therefore their relationship with the street and their citizenship is essentially different to that of homeless men. If we take the standpoint that we are currently located within a period of late modernity – as discussed previously – in which institutions have not kept pace with social changes such as the prevalence of women’s homelessness it is possible to identify and perhaps provide some explanation as to how this has affected issues of community governance in a range of ways including the criminalisation of homelessness alongside other poor public policy responses. Examples of policy responses to homelessness such as those we have mentioned both in Hungary, the USA and the UK appear to be based on the premise that homeless people represent an unsightly threat to social order, and social attitudes to the homeless mirror this. For example, Rahimian et al (1994) have described how contemporary representations and perceptions of homeless migrants are used as a common political strategy by local authorities attempting to avoid obligations to provide support to homeless individuals on the basis of their transiency. Traders and business owners similarly contend that homeless people discourage customers and make them feel uncomfortable. The homeless are thus perceived as the transgressors of the normal socio-spatial expectations and, as such, reify the distinction between where homelessness is in, or out, of place (Cloke et al, 2001). It is already a fact that homeless people are far more likely to come into contact with the police than with social services (Crisis, 2003) and these social attitudes to the homeless reinforce their social exclusion and social control through a stigmatising agenda and the control of the temporal and spatial ordering of their use of public spaces. The homeless are also thus labelled in such a way that, according to Zola (1972), affects the very core of their self-identity. The social reaction to their different behaviour can be so extreme as to rob them of their selfhood, and, as such, they may be

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Towards a theory of women’s homelessness

institutionalised according to the demands and regulations of society. Scheff (1966) explains this by contending that unreasonable conduct in everyday situations is particularly threatening to social order as it breaks some of the residual rules of social life and this can this be labelled as ‘deviance’. Arguably with homeless women, this stigmatisation is worse; social stereotypes of the homeless appear to indicate that most people’s idea of a homeless person is the man with the sleeping bag and the dog sitting in the underpass. While this is socially not acceptable to many, as discussed previously, it indicates that the majority view would not be to assume that women are homeless. The suggestion that women may be homeless too poses another threat to social order since this is not what might be expected and thus it breaks those rules of acceptable social order. It also potentially violates social gender stereotypes where women are perceived as the nurturer, the homemaker, the mother. Eagly et al (1984) are among many who argue that gender stereotypes stem from the distribution of women and men into social roles, commenting that: According to stereotypic beliefs about the sexes, women are more communal (selfless and concerned with others) and less agentic (self-assertive and motivated to master) than men. These beliefs…stem from perceivers’ observations of women and men in differing social roles: (a) women are more likely than men to hold positions of lower status and authority, and (b) women are more likely than men to be homemakers and are less likely to be employed in the paid workforce. Also of relevance is the work of Heidensohn (1985) who, in her research on female offenders, suggests that they are subjected to double jeopardy in that they are on trial for the crime they commit but also for their femininity. Thus she claims that female offenders are punished for their crime and their sexual misbehaviour, if any, whereas the male counterparts are not. Therefore the courts operate a double standard for female offenders. Perhaps, then, it is possible, using this theoretical model, to suggest that homeless women suffer greater stigma than their male counterparts because they are not ‘supposed’ to be on the street, and, because of the possibility of sexual exploitation, it is perceived to be a greater danger for them to be there. In the societal era of late modernity therefore, it is perhaps unsurprising that there is a lack of knowledge about the nature and extent of women’s

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homelessness and a corresponding failure of policy makers and agencies to respond to the issue, with the result that women only provision is sparse or non-existent. Although many of the women in our study had well-rehearsed characteristics and profiles, knowledge of the nature and extent of this problem still remains elusive in the four EU countries in the study. Profiles of homeless women who experience violence on the street need to be better understood, as do the changing profiles of women coming into this situation as immigrants and as the victims of trafficking. Our findings also demonstrated that the majority of service providers still do not have a clear picture of the extent of the issue of women rough sleepers who are experiencing violence and in spite of what FEANTSA describes as the ‘well developed body of knowledge at EU level about the type of data required and how this can be collected’, there is still not enough data or general knowledge about the types of women who present with experiences of violence and how best to assist them. Quite rightly there will be those who posit the view that women’s experience of violence is not necessarily of their own making and therefore is not entirely their responsibility to resolve. The research team conducting this study are in agreement that this social problem is not solely the responsibility of women, but also that of boys and men, who should be educated as a preventive measure alongside girls and women in issues of gender equality, respect and safe, appropriate relationships. It is not our intention to place the responsibility for solving this at the feet of women but to make recommendations for a more holistic approach to this involving all. We also identified that there is a distinct lack of accommodation for homeless women victims of violence and that accommodation in mixed shelters, for example, is not appropriate. The quality and nature of accommodation offered to such women needs to be thought through by policy makers before further welfare reforms disproportionately penalise some of the most vulnerable people in our societies. This of course is inextricably linked to the wider policies of governments in EU countries in relation to generic homelessness and more specifically women’s homelessness, which is not yet – according to our findings – being acknowledged as a distinct issue that requires distinct solutions. A further issue that we have touched on is the failure of homeless policies. In some instances – for example that of Hungary – this has unfortunately gone much further, where being homeless is currently illegal as entrenched within the Hungarian constitution. However, although Hungary’s approach to this social issue has had some attention, make no mistake that there are similarities in the other countries in this study. In an attempt to give voice to the experiences of single homeless

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Towards a theory of women’s homelessness

women, and to shape public policy in such a way as to better incorporate their needs, British feminist scholars have tended to turn away from the streets and emergency shelters to focus instead upon those other spaces of homelessness where women are more likely to be found: bed and breakfast hotels, ‘open’ and ‘up-market’ hostels, or women’s refuges, for example (Smith, 1998; 1999; Watson, 1999; Watson and Austerberry, 1986). Of significance within our research is the number of times and duration of rough sleeping for the women in the samples. In the UK, Sweden and Hungary the figures for the number of times women slept rough is comparable. This appears to demonstrate that long-term solutions to prevent it are not being found, or are not successful for these women and this should perhaps be a focus for those working with them, since they appear to be returning to the street. In Sweden there was also an issue for some women with long-term entrenched rough sleeping over and in excess of 10 years. To illustrate the dysfunctionality of current service provision that may be contributing to this, women in our samples commented in the following way: ‘There should be women-only services. There is a huge mix of people all with different problems. We need more apartments. What is difficult is that there are so many people at the shelter all with different needs.’ ‘I find it difficult to express myself to the authorities and ask for help. It would be good to have support from someone who can go to meetings with me.’ ‘There are many women who do not know where to go or who to turn to so there needs to be more advertising of services and more information.’ ‘Men have more services available to them than women. It’s important that there is accommodation for abused women. Each and every person should be able to get the support and assistance they need. Services where there are male and female staff (and not just female staff) and services are customised to the needs of that person and take into account different religions/cultures. It can be daunting to put people from different cultures with people who have suffered different forms of abuse. You should not put drug free people with drug addicts in the same accommodation. You need more variety of services to fit different people’s needs.’

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Conclusion It is our contention therefore that there is a form of social dysfunction in the causation, experience and impact of women’s homelessness which is grounded in theories associated with late modernity and which reflect a failure to acknowledge the extent, nature, influence and impact of women’s rough sleeping in the twenty-first century. This is based on the qualitative ethnographic research that we have carried out in this study and which we detail in later chapters of this book. While there are a number of theoretical approaches to homelessness, it is our contention that ethnographic approaches that focus on homeless cultures and the relationships between those cultures and mainstream culture/society hold out the greatest promise for understanding homelessness as a multidimensional phenomenon. Homeless people are primarily social beings; they have life stories, their own specific histories; they live in a variety of environments alongside a variety of people with whom they experience differing relationships. Although there is a body of work on homelessness, which has contributed significantly to understandings of this social phenomenon, it appears that so far studies have not looked specifically at the distinct issues of women’s homelessness and how that is shaped by their relationships in the home, on the street and with agencies. Arguably, with the advent of social dysfunction theory this paves the way for ethnography that is informed specifically by women’s insights in order to enhance our understanding of how this differs from male experiences of homelessness. The ethnographic research that we have carried out across a number of European countries demonstrates to us that while there are some differences in the nature, experience of and response to women’s homelessness across the EU, the similarities in relation to this are more remarkable. In order to learn from this we need to pay more attention to women’s life stories in the context of those individuals and agencies with whom they come into contact so that we can reflect on their meaning in the construction and maintenance of different cultures which are interactively and discursively constructed across a number of dimensions. This information needs to be further analysed so that the homeless archipelago becomes part of a wider and more responsive system. The next chapter will focus on the extent, nature and characteristics of women rough sleepers in each of the countries in the study, focusing in particular on legislation, policy and practice, the differing social contexts of the organisations and women rough sleepers who took part in the study, highlighting salient similarities and differences and contextualising this against the background of the current social, political and cultural climates within each country in the study.

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THREE

A European perspective on women’s rough sleeping This chapter details the current situations in relation to the extent, nature and characteristics of women rough sleepers in each of the countries in the study. It will discuss the context of the problem of women rough sleepers in each country with regard to how much is currently known about women who sleep rough, previous research that has been carried out and also the current situation in each country with regard to legislation, policy and practice. It includes discussion of the relevant European literature on the subject of homelessness, the different social contexts of the organisations and women rough sleepers themselves who took part in the study and will highlight salient similarities and differences in responses from those interviewed and will contextualise this against the background of the current social, political and cultural climates within each country in the study. It includes literature reviews that were carried out by each partner country at the start of the project. These are important in order to contextualise the current situations in each country with regard to how much is currently known about women who sleep rough, previous research that has been carried out, available statistics and current policy and practice.

UK literature review Within the UK most publications focus on rough sleeping among women as an aspect of the complex and wide ranging phenomenon of homelessness, which is broadly defined by leading charity, Crisis (2005, 1), as ‘the problem faced by people who lack a place to live that is supportive, affordable, decent and secure’. What is important is that the organisation makes the point that ‘[h]omelessness is about more than rooflessness. A home is not just a physical space: it provides roots, identity, security, a sense of belonging and a place of emotional wellbeing. Homelessness is about the loss of these’ (Crisis, 2010, 1). Although homelessness can encompass a range of different states including that of being in inadequate or insecure housing, the figure of the rough sleeper is perhaps most commonly brought to mind by the term ‘homelessness’ (Moss and Singh, 2012) and often works,

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in the western world at least, as socially and culturally iconic of the phenomenon as a whole (Glasser and Bridgman, 1999; May et al, 2007). Grenier (1996) contends that: When most people think of a homeless person they tend to think of someone sleeping rough on the streets. Sleeping rough is a dangerous and traumatising experience. Rough sleepers have an average life expectancy of just 42 years, compared with the national average of 74 for men and 79 for women. People who sleep rough are 35 times more likely to commit suicide than the general population. It is difficult to get an absolute figure for the number of people sleeping rough. One reason for this is that, in order to protect themselves, many rough sleepers hide themselves away in places where they might be difficult to find and this is especially true for women. Rough sleeping is certainly an extreme manifestation of the range of states of insecurity that make up homelessness, and is ‘a dangerous and traumatising experience’ (Crisis, 2011). Evidence suggests that this trend continues into the twenty-first century, and that women are at particular risk when sleeping rough (Nottingham City Council, 2006; Reeve et al, 2006; May et al, 2007; Crisis, 2011). The problem of rough sleeping in the UK is difficult both to measure and to engage with for a variety of reasons. In terms of gaining a general grounding in the issues, a literature search indicates that the majority of existing work in this field comes from North America. There is strikingly little from either the UK or Europe, and what little there is has often comprised research in male social spheres, thus demonstrating the timeliness of this publication. A notable exception to this paucity of coverage is a paper by Casey et al (2008) exploring homeless women’s use of public spaces and buildings in England, which problematises the spatial boundaries, typically presented in literature and research, suggesting that homeless women are largely confined to institutional or private spaces of homelessness. The authors argue that homeless women make use of highly visible public spaces and semi-private spaces, and that these practices can be conceptualised in terms of resistance: homeless women challenge the rules associated with occupying public spaces that either directly or tacitly exclude them, and they engage in identity work to resist being uncritically labelled as homeless, as also argued by May et al (2007) in their study of the movement patterns

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and mobile articulations of identity practised by ‘visibly’ homeless women on London’s streets. There is clearly a lack of detailed and realistic information about homelessness in the UK. This problem is particularly acute in the case of women’s homelessness, as captured in the following statement issued by the YMCA on the Liverpool branch website (2014): Homeless women are particularly isolated and cut off from services and assistance. While 60 per cent of homeless women have slept rough, only 12 per cent have engaged with street outreach teams. 40 per cent of homeless women reported having been excluded from a service and 10 per cent were not using any service. 20 per cent had become homeless to escape violence from someone they knew yet less than a third of women were accepted for housing by local authorities. We have previously reported figures from the first decade of the twentyfirst century suggesting that homelessness among women had increased by around 80 per cent in a five year period (Moss and Singh, 2012). More recently, almost half of those judged as ‘homeless households in priority need’ by UK local authorities in the final quarter of 2013 were lone women with dependent children: nearly 6,000 applications for assistance were accepted by local authorities in England in this three month period alone. Single women as a discrete category make up a further 11 per cent of those in priority need (DCLG, 2014). The fact that single women with dependent children make up such a significant number of those most in need further supports our argument that homeless women – and especially those sleeping rough – have specific, complex and often urgent needs requiring sensitive and targeted responses from dedicated services. Reeve et al (2006) conducted research among 160 homeless women across England, reporting that many of them are not receiving the assistance they require with accessing accommodation. The authors argue that this reflects the fact that homeless women’s wider situations, needs and vulnerabilities are not always adequately taken into account by interventions. They call for improvements and changes to local authority homelessness assessments, decisions and practices, addressing the ways in which current services are not sensitised to the needs of women (Moss and Singh, 2012). What is important is that the research suggests that women often inhabit what would not be conventionally considered as spaces of ‘homelessness’: many homeless women spend time living with

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friends or relatives, often with periods of sleeping rough in between, and do not appear to access homeless services. This may either be due to a lack of awareness of the services available to them, or due to a lack of suitable provision. As Casey et al (2008) suggest, such women may seek to subvert or resist the label ‘homeless’ through innovative use of public and semi-private spaces; it is interesting to note that they may not consider ‘homeless’ a useful label for their experiences. Reeve et al (2006) therefore argue that effectively engaging with issues of women’s homelessness requires a change in our conceptual approach to homeless women. In addition, Walsh et al (2009) suggest that the decreasing focus on homelessness in the academic canon has had a particularly adverse effect on our understanding of women rough sleepers in particular, and indeed on women who experience diverse forms of social marginalisation in general. They reiterate assertions that women’s homelessness services should be sensitively targeted to take into account their specific experiences and that more research is needed into the life trajectories of homeless women, the latter of which will be discussed in more detail in subsequent sections. A number of organisations support the above arguments that the hidden nature of women’s homelessness can often result in their needs being overlooked. In the UK, Equation (formerly the Nottinghamshire Domestic Violence Forum (NDVF)) have shared a report carried out by Nottingham City Council, which found that there were ‘stark contrasts between the female and male rough sleeping populations, which raise strong cases for women-based services, particularly at a preventative level’ (Nottingham City Council, 2006). This research is particularly useful in elucidating key factors in women’s homelessness and rough sleeping in the UK, and is especially admirable as a piece of local government-driven work focusing on the lived experiences of rough sleepers in an urban area. Nottingham City Council’s findings suggest ‘clear indicators’ (Nottingham City Council, 2006, 1) of factors precipitating homelessness among women and reiterate that there are some significant differences in experiences and support needs between women and men. For example, 57 per cent of women rough sleepers surveyed in 2006 suffered coexisting drug misuse and mental health problems compared to 17 per cent of men. Further to high levels of complex support needs and comorbidities, homelessness among women can be more clearly linked to ‘experiences’ (Nottingham City Council, 2006, 2), especially the experience of domestic violence: 59 per cent of the women rough sleepers in the 2006 survey had experienced domestic violence, compared with just 6 per cent of the men. Indicative of the ways in which traumatic experiences interact with and contribute

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to complex support needs among women rough sleepers, five out of six women dealing with coexisting mental health and drug misuse problems also reported having been victims of domestic violence.

Predictors of rough sleeping among women It is possible, from the existing literature, to ascertain a number of agreed predictors of women’s rough sleeping. Prominent among these factors are child sexual abuse, substance misuse, lifetime engagement in sex trade activity and previous incarceration – along with, of course, the experience of domestic violence, as discussed above. Added to this are risk chains over the life course, including a lack of family support and a turning point in early adolescence. Women who become homeless tend to experience, during their youth, challenging circumstances that leave them ill-prepared to prevent and resolve homelessness in adulthood. Early sexualisation that degrades and violates women, eroding their self-worth as young girls and later as adults, often shapes their gendered vulnerabilities and influences or contributes to a precarious adulthood that will likely involve periods of housing insecurity, homelessness and rough sleeping (May et al, 2007). Particular experiences overwhelmingly reported in the early lives of women rough sleepers include homelessness, running away from home and having been in care as children, along with domestic violence and family/ relationship breakdown at various points in the life course. In the 2006 Nottingham research, the number of women who ran away from home as children and subsequently ended up sleeping rough was relatively low overall, but much higher when compared to men who reported this experience. Further, a greater proportion of women rough sleepers surveyed in this and other studies experienced homelessness as a child than did the men. The likelihood of becoming homeless for care leavers is greater across the genders, but the impact of this on women seems to be more acute when linked with experiences such as childhood sexual abuse and domestic violence, whether occurring in the familial home or statutory care setting. In purely numerical terms, the Nottingham researchers found that 41 per cent of women rough sleepers had been in care, compared with 28 per cent of men; 90 per cent of the women surveyed had experienced some form of family or relationship breakdown. The interrelation of predictive factors understood as the kind of traumatic life experiences discussed above seems to have both an acute and pervasive effect on women rough sleepers; the more of these negative influences women experience, the more coexisting support needs they identify and the

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more a vicious circle of breakdown and rough sleeping is evident (Nottingham City Council, 2006; Moss and Singh, 2012). This chimes with patterns uncovered in previous research into women rough sleepers and indicates profound family and childhood home-based issues that can be directly related to women sleeping rough (Moss and Singh, 2012). The effect of instability in early life on a woman’s abilities to cope as an adult cannot be ignored and is most often associated with experiences of domestic violence and family breakdown. These factors can therefore be cited as major predictors of homelessness and rough sleeping for women, in terms of women who have had such early experiences demonstrating obvious difficulty in accessing and remaining in adequate, secure accommodation and relationships with a view to permanent safety and wellbeing as adults. In addition to the general predictors of homelessness and influences on rough sleeping discussed, there are specific risks for women who sleep rough that are more acute than for men in the same situation. These include involvement in sex work, substance misuse and mental health issues. These issues can become inextricably connected over time and we can point to linkages with the above predictors of rough sleeping, notably the link between previous experience of domestic violence, homelessness and poor mental health (Nottingham City Council, 2006; Nadeem, 2011). Involvement in sex work and being at risk of sexual exploitation are more common for women rough sleepers than men, yet the ways in which risks arise around women rough sleepers’ sexual behaviour are not clear-cut and do not follow a one-way trajectory; rather, they are enmeshed in complex social worlds that involve the constant negotiation of risk and need. As already noted, homeless women often inhabit ‘invisible’ spaces of homelessness, using strategies such as ‘sofa surfing’ and complex spatial patterns of avoiding engagement with outreach services and/or other groups of rough sleepers. The use of these strategies, no doubt undertaken by women rough sleepers in part to reduce risk to themselves, can open new avenues of risk in that they may lead to a pattern of exchanging sexual acts for a place to sleep. Such strategies have been noted throughout the literature on homeless women, including in early studies carried out by the women rough sleepers project(s). The risk of women rough sleepers becoming exposed to sexual violence and exploitation as a result of these strategies was noted as a priority area of focus by Moss and Singh in 2015. Huey and Berndt (2008) report that as a masculinist space, the street presents a variety of dangers to homeless women and suggest that involvement in sex work can be both a consequence of this and

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part of a complex survival strategy that homeless women develop in order to avoid other forms of criminal victimisation. Nevertheless, such work comes with attendant risks for women that cannot be ignored. Linked to hazardous sexual behaviour and involvement in the sex trade are the risks surrounding substance misuse, specifically alcohol and illicit drugs. The most obvious link is between rough sleeping, misuse of drugs, sex work and HIV/AIDS, the prevalence of which is significantly higher in the homeless population in general and among women rough sleepers in particular (Fordham and Bennett, 2008; Moss and Singh, 2012). Moss and Singh (2012, 13) argue that ‘[h]omeless women worldwide are at high risk for contracting HIV/AIDS and make risky sex decisions. Alcohol and drugs play major parts in this process’. As with involvement in sex work, risks associated with alcohol and drug misuse are linked to women rough sleepers’ social networks and survival strategies. Research into women rough sleepers in the UK found that homeless women are more likely to use alcohol and drugs than other women and those with a greater proportion of heavy alcohol users in their personal networks have greater odds of engaging in binge drinking themselves. Similarly, homeless women with a high proportion of drug users in their networks have greater likelihood of using marijuana, cocaine, crack and amphetamines. In the general population as well as among the homeless, more women experience mental health issues than men. The mental health needs of homeless people, especially rough sleepers, are more likely to be untreated or under-treated. In 2009, Inside Housing reported a finding from homeless charity St Mungo’s that 35 per cent of the homeless people it supports suffer severe and enduring mental illness. A survey of St Mungo’s hostels found that 85 per cent of residents were in poor mental health, many reporting an array of personality, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorders, yet few had received a formal diagnosis. Research carried out by Crisis suggests that psychotic disorders are between 50 and 100 times more common among rough sleepers than the general population, affecting in particular those from black and ethnic minority communities, refugees, asylum seekers and those who also engage in substance misuse. St Mungo’s Chief Executive, Charles Fraser, argued in 2011 that even when the number of rough sleepers on average decreased, the proportion of those with a mental illness remained at around a third, suggesting that, ‘These are often the individuals with the most intractable problems, who need the most determined help… We urgently need to find out more about … the causes, the true state of mental health among rough sleepers’ (Nadeem, 2011, 1). The importance of targeting mental health services towards

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the needs of different groups in society has come to be recognised, and women rough sleepers both make up a specific group in this respect and come from a range of different backgrounds. As already noted, women rough sleepers are much more likely to have experienced domestic violence, abuse and relationship breakdown, which are also linked to high rates of mental ill health. To avoid perpetuating a vicious circle of abuse, breakdown, rough sleeping and attendant exposure to further risk, it is therefore imperative that mental health and homelessness services target support towards women rough sleepers as a distinct and complex group rather than one undifferentiated by gender in either experiences or needs.

Cultural factors among women rough sleepers Further differences in experience and need between women rough sleepers may be rooted in cultural factors and ethnic background. Given the large amount of ethnic minorities in the UK, the importance of integrated services that are sensitive to such differences cannot be understated. In terms of the above discussion of mental health issues among women rough sleepers, a variety of factors contribute to mental distress among homeless women of different ethnic groups. These differences should be considered in the development of culturally appropriate services designed to address mental health problems among homeless women. It is also important to note that, among most ethnic groups in the UK, women continue to be socially and culturally more likely to be primarily located within the domestic sphere and to occupy domestic-based social roles. The social conventions and gendered role expectations surrounding this trend may mean that women endure intolerable domestic situations more often and for longer than men. In addition, dominant constructions of women’s roles in society can make women feel that they are failures if they ‘opt out’ of conventional ‘female’ social roles, which can contribute to significant tension, mental ill health and an absence of feelings of self-worth that often go hand in hand with rough sleeping, substance misuse and risk-taking behaviour. A lack of culturally appropriate facilities for homeless women can also contribute to some women sleeping rough rather than engaging with services via shelters and hostels. In October 2012 the BBC reported the opening of hostels specifically for homeless Muslim women by the Islamic charity, National Zakat Foundation, after the organisation observed an increase in the number of Muslim women sleeping rough in the UK, which it put down to a lack of appropriate facilities. Many Muslim women believe that they must not mix with unrelated males

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or put themselves in an environment where forbidden activities such as the consumption of alcohol or drugs are taking place. As many homeless shelters provide mixed sex accommodation and tend to see high rates of substance use, Muslim women can feel it is preferable to sleep rough than reside in such an environment (Bano, 2012). Services provided by religious organisations to homeless and povertystricken groups have been common in the UK for much of the country’s history, but have grown exponentially since the 2008 financial crisis and the Conservative-led government’s austerity measures, many of which have hit the poor hardest and have been linked, for example, to the upsurges in rough sleeping previously noted. As well as faith communities providing services to their own members that are appropriate and sensitive to their needs, on which statutory services and NGOs have often failed, there has been an increase in the UK in food banks and homeless shelters or day centres run by religious people from places of worship but not directed at any specific community. The Trussell Trust, for example, is the UK’s largest food bank operator and a Christian organisation. In London and the Midlands region of England, which have large South Asian populations, Sikh gurdwaras have increasingly been providing food and shelter to the homeless by means of the langar meal (Talwar, 2013). However, religious leaders have found that providing services to vulnerable groups can cause tensions between spiritual and worldly obligations. One Sikh leader interviewed by the BBC in 2013 claimed that, despite providing a lifeline to some of the poorest members of his Midlands community, local authorities could be ineffectual in dealing with challenging behaviour from clients (Talwar, 2013). It is also frustrating to see the extent to which religious and civil groups are tacitly expected to plug gaping holes in the UK’s reformed welfare system (Hill, 2012; MacErlean, 2013). Female immigrants to the UK can be particularly vulnerable to housing insecurity and are making up increasing numbers of the UK’s rough sleepers, especially in the capital, London (MacErlean, 2013). Women who are brought to the UK by force or under false pretences can find themselves without anywhere to go if they escape abusers or without the language skills and cultural knowledge to confidently access services (Bano, 2012). The high cost of renting in London has driven some foreign-born students to rough sleeping or occupying insecure accommodation, such as the large groups of South Asian students who come to the capital for courses but not anticipating the high cost of living and have only overstretched religious charities to fall back on. The same can be true for the many Eastern European women who come to London looking for work but are increasingly

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finding jobs to be scarce as the economic downturn bites ever harder (MacErlean, 2013). Such women are extremely vulnerable to abuse and can become involved in drug dealing and sex work as part of their attempts to secure accommodation through favours.

UK legislation It is impossible to identify a legislative framework specifically in relation to women rough sleepers since none exist and what legislation does exist is generic and not gender specific. It is also difficult to make direct comparisons between the legislative and policy frameworks in the diverse countries in the study simply because they are inherently different. However, what follows is a descriptive account of the legislative frameworks, as they currently exist in each country. Although there is no constitutional right to housing in the UK, the homeless do have the right to a home under the Homelessness Act 2002 – as long as they are deemed to be unintentionally homeless. In Scotland, there is a national strategic framework based on the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 and the Homeless (Scotland) Act 2003 under which all unintentionally homeless households are entitled to settled accommodation and the responsibility for ensuring the implementation of these legal duties belongs to local authorities. In Northern Ireland, the primary legislation covering homelessness is the Housing Northern Ireland Order 1988. In all cases it is local housing authorities that are required to consider housing needs within their area, including the needs of homeless households, to whom local authorities have a statutory duty to provide assistance. In spite of these somewhat recent developments, however, homelessness and many of the activities engaged in by homeless people, continue to be criminalised in the UK. For example, the Vagrancy Act 1824 makes rough sleeping, begging and obstructing passages on public thoroughfares, criminal offences punishable by fines. It is not uncommon also for the Public Order Act 1998 – specifically those sections now dealing with Anti-Social Behaviour Orders – to be used by police officers to disperse homeless people from public places on the grounds that they might engage in anti-social behaviour in a designated dispersal zone. Squatting – originally a civil offence – has also now been criminalised with squatters being criminally liable for entering a residential building as a trespasser. Other legislation that is relevant to the homeless are the Housing Acts of 1977 and 1996 which placed statutory duties on local housing authorities to ensure that advice and assistance to households who are homeless or threatened

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with homelessness is available free of charge. This duty is owed where the authority is satisfied that the applicant is eligible for assistance, unintentionally homeless and falls within a specified priority need group. There are also individuals which fall within what are known as ‘priority need groups’. This includes pregnant women, households with dependent children and people who are vulnerable in some way, young people aged 16 or 17, young people aged 18 to 20 who were previously in care, custody or HM forces or who had to flee their homes due to violence. In May 2009, the House of Lords Judgment in the case R(G) v Southwark ruled that local authorities should also presume that any lone, homeless child should be provided with accommodation under section 20(3) of the Children Act 1989, to accommodate any child in need aged 16 and 17 whose welfare is likely to be seriously prejudiced without the provision of accommodation. At the same time, local housing authorities are required under the Housing Act 1996 (as amended by the Homelessness Act 2002) to secure accommodation for people who are unintentionally homeless, eligible for assistance and in priority need. Where a local authority is deemed to owe this duty to an individual they must ensure that suitable accommodation is available until a settled housing solution becomes available or some other circumstance brings the duty to an end. Where households are found to be intentionally homeless, or not in priority need, the authority must make an assessment of their housing needs and provide advice and assistance to help them find accommodation for themselves. In relation to rough sleepers specifically (which does not include people in hostels or shelters, people in campsites or other sites used for recreational purposes or organised protest, squatters or travellers) under the Homelessness Act 2002, each local housing authority must have a strategy for preventing homelessness which should apply to everyone at risk of homelessness, not just people who may fall within a priority need group described previously. Homeless organisations such as Shelter, Crisis and Homeless Link have appealed for it to be scrapped because it penalises the most vulnerable people in society and effectively criminalises poverty. As long ago as 2003, Crisis argued that begging and rough sleeping were ‘primarily questions of social exclusion and [are] most effectively addressed by tackling their root causes’. More creative welfare-based and employment solutions need to be found but more than a decade since then, vagrancy laws continue to be used against not just the homeless, but also against people accused of ‘skipping’. For example,

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in January 2014, three men were arrested and charged under the Vagrancy Act 1824 for stealing food from a skip located at the rear of an Iceland food store in London. The food had been placed there because it was out of date and was destined for landfill, however, the three men – all residents of a squat in north London, were arrested after a call to police by a member of the public. The value of the food amounted to £33 and the men were held in a police cell for 19 hours before being released. They were due to attend a court hearing on 3 February 2014 but before the hearing the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided to drop the case, because they said public interest factors did not support the prosecution (Gentleman, 2014b). The Charity ‘Soldiers off the Street’ which campaigns on behalf of homeless ex-servicemen has recently indicated on its website that as late as 1990 there were 1,250 prosecutions under the Vagrancy Act 1824 in London alone. They feel that this demonstrates that the Vagrancy Act is still being used to prosecute rough sleepers over 160 years after it was first enacted. More recently they submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request to the Metropolitan Police to find out how many people were arrested under the Vagrancy Act in London in 2013 as well as asking the Ministry of Justice for figures on the number of people who were convicted under the Act in the same period.

Swedish literature review Despite the significant gaps that will be addressed in this discussion, much is in fact known about homeless people in Sweden. We know that the group consists of both men and women; young and old; Swedes and immigrants. Many of them have substance misuse issues and many have mental health difficulties; some suffer from both. They have as a group more incidences of serious physical and mental illness that could be, at least partly, alcohol and drug related. Alcohol and drug related death is above the average for the population and is higher for women than men. Some research suggests that staying in shelters and other forms of temporary accommodation do not necessarily open up effective pathways to ending homelessness or even rough sleeping. Mental health issues often become acute and substance misuse can escalate during periods spent in emergency accommodation, which can block the way to better accommodation as well as leading to stigmatisation and blame. It is possible that some forms of support or assistance for homeless people, because of the architecture of the systems and pervasiveness of dominant discourses in which they are

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embedded, can maintain homeless people in situations of disorder and dependency rather than providing a way out (Beijer, 2001). In 2005 the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) conducted a nationwide ‘mapping’ of homelessness (Socialstyrelsen, 2006). This revealed a homeless population of 17,800 people, according to classifications based in the ETHOS framework, which attempts to synthesise and streamline pan-European understandings of homelessness as a phenomenon, identifying a key range of conditions and experiences that would classify a person as ‘homeless’ in most European countries. These encompass rooflessness (without a shelter of any kind, sleeping rough), houselessness (with a place to sleep but temporary, in institutions or shelter), living in insecure housing (threatened with severe exclusion due to insecure tenancies, eviction and domestic violence) and living in inadequate housing (in caravans on illegal campsites, in unfit housing or in extreme overcrowding). The ETHOS approach endorses the notion that homelessness is a process, not an inevitable or unchanging state, which affects vulnerable households at different points in the life course (FEANTSA, 2006). Of the 17,800 persons defined as homeless in the 2005 study, 4,500 – or around 25 per cent – were women. This proportion had increased significantly during the 1990s, from 17 per cent in 1993 to 22 per cent in 1999, and seems to be continuing to rise (Socialstyrelsen, 2012). Five per cent of the overall homeless population were reported as sleeping outdoors: 3,600 people fell into a category called ‘Situation 1’, defined as sleeping rough or living in hostels, hotels and youth hostels, refuges or other forms of emergency accommodation; 26 per cent of those in Situation 1 in 2005 were women. These figures suggest that men are statistically more likely to be homeless, sleeping rough or in temporary accommodation than women, but the authors argued in addition that male and female rough sleepers have distinct issues, and we must be mindful of the seemingly ongoing increase in women’s homelessness. On average, women rough sleepers in Sweden are younger than men and have been homeless for shorter periods. They are more often listed as parents of children under 18 years of age and more often live with their children than do homeless men.

Predictors of rough sleeping among Swedish women Women rough sleepers in Sweden are more commonly affected by family breakdown, divorce, domestic violence and mental ill health, whereas men’s issues often involve addiction as the primary factor. A review of research into homelessness in Sweden demonstrates

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that studies mainly deal with men, especially those conducted in the country’s capital, Stockholm, and in major cities such as Gothenburg and Malmö. One can argue that this merely reflects the greater prevalence of men in the homeless population, yet we find it important to note that homeless women in Sweden are seldom dealt with in focused research. Where women’s issues and experiences are elaborated, this tends to be as sub-issues within broader reports on homelessness that do not focus on gender as a key variable. Beijer (2009) conducted an overview of Swedish research into homelessness. The first academic studies dealing with homeless persons were published in the 1960s, and the 1970s saw the completion of the first doctoral dissertation on the subject. Since then the lives of homeless men and women have been documented in the Swedish literature in a variety of ways and there have been four nationwide mapping studies carried out in 1993, 1999, 2005 and 2011 (Socialstyrelsen, 2012). Beijer (2009) cites Inge’s (1962) work as the first study of homelessness among women. Inge worked with a heterogeneous group of 581 homeless women using services at a 200-bed hostel called Spjutet (‘Spear’). The women experienced a variety of problems and had multiple, differing support needs. One third were in receipt of social benefits, one sixth had substance misuse issues and one sixth had also received inpatient psychiatric treatment. A smaller number had particularly severe addiction and mental health problems and had been homeless for long periods, yet in addition to this Inge also observed women with no obvious personal or social difficulties. In light of the wide variations in the troubles and support needs of the 581 women studied, Inge argued for opening a number of smaller, more targeted services for women that could be more flexible and responsive to their gendered needs. Longitudinal studies published in 1987 by Stadig (1987) and Franér and Ågren (1987a) offer further evidence that women who sleep rough and in shelters have higher than average incidences of substance misuse and mental health issues. Both studies, conducted in the 1970s and 1980s, suggested an average age of mid-30s for women rough sleepers (this is considered young in terms of the Swedish homeless population on average) and also show high rates of accessing health and social care services for issues such as addiction, sexual violence and attempted suicide. Hanström (1991) made an important contribution to the research landscape with a doctoral dissertation on women who abused drugs, most of whom were also homeless. Although not the primary motivation of the original piece of work, Hanström’s focus on the lived experience of precarious living conditions and rough sleeping is significant as a piece of ethnographic research focusing

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solely on women that lends support to the argument that tailor-made services for women are necessary to allow them to regain self-respect that is often lost through not having a place of one’s own. Hanström’s informants felt that the loss of self-respect associated with homelessness was also linked to other experiences that threaten personal integrity, such as domestic or sexual violence and unemployment, which further supports the call for joined-up service delivery focusing on interrelated psychosocial elements of the experience of societal marginalisation (Rosengren, 2003; Thörn, 2004). Beijer (1998; 2009) suggests that a lack of joined-up services affects women particularly negatively due to the additional issues with which they often present, such as seeking refuge from abusive men, and with dependent children in tow.

Cultural factors among Swedish women rough sleepers In 1998 there was a report on 341 homeless women who stayed in the Hvilan shelter in Stockholm during 1995–96. Research involved interviews with Hvilan staff, social services and outreach personnel and some of the women service users. There had also been reviews of medical and social services documentation on the women. There emerged a picture of three-quarters of women having addiction problems. Half of the women surveyed had psychiatric problems and a third were classed as dual or ‘double-diagnosed’, that is, suffering from both mental health and substance misuse issues (Löfstrand, 2012, 116). The women had commonly been victims of violence from a close relative. A small number of the homeless women – mainly those with mental health issues – spent long periods at the shelter because there was no alternative accommodation available to them. Many of the women were mothers to young children that were in the custody of the state or other carers, sometimes the biological father. This study also highlighted the importance of the home situation in which the women had grown up or lived prior to becoming homeless: many women told of an unstable childhood, of difficulties obtaining support from the authorities when they had been violated and of the vulnerability they had experienced. The report’s authors concluded that city and social services policy in many ways discriminated against homeless women in that women did not have the same access to shelters, temporary accommodation and drug treatment as men. There was a lingering perception that the women were living under rules set by men in their everyday lives but also in their contact with the authorities and support services.

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In 2001 the city administration in Stockholm published a report by Ulla Beijer concerning outreach services for homeless women. Over six months a team of two outreach workers were in contact with 40 homeless women, four of them with mental health problems and 17 with addiction problems only; 19 women were considered to have dual diagnoses. Analysis showed that women with drug problems asked for help from supportive services more often and were perceived as getting the most attention. Women who experienced substance misuse but not mental health issues were able to navigate support systems more easily and independently than those with either mental health issues or a combination of both. Two different models were proposed, based upon the amount of support that women needed to access services and it was emphasised that women with mental health and dual diagnosis issues would require more intensive support in the beginning coupled with a follow-up period in which progress could be monitored and relapses prevented. This was referred to as ‘relational’ support, rather than the less intensive ‘linking’, which seems similar to what UK-based services refer to as ‘signposting’ and requires a higher level of motivation and independence on the part of the service user. The ethnography Between anger and hope (Rosengren, 2003) features the personal stories of homeless women in Stockholm with whom anthropologist, Annette Rosengren, worked for four years. Most of the women were in middle to old age and had long-term addictions to which they attributed their continuing homelessness. Many of them hoped for an apartment of their own but were unable to maintain their sobriety, which was seen as a prerequisite. The women seemed to live somewhat isolated, meagre lives, with few possessions and their children in the care of others. Sleeping rough was a common experience for these women, yet they did not passively accept the social role of ‘homeless’ nor wish to conform to any stereotype: in spite of sleeping rough, the women made efforts to wash themselves and be properly dressed, not wishing to ‘smell of homelessness’. Similarly, Thörn (2004) found that women rough sleepers reflected upon and resisted common images and stereotypes of the homeless woman, which Thorn felt to be paradoxical: homeless women are more exposed; they are different from women not homeless; they are more vulnerable and in need of help, but they are at the same time viewed as manipulative and thus strong. Thorn argued that her informants wished not to be seen as homeless above all other aspects of their identity or personhood; not stigmatised but seen as persons and accepted as individuals who want and have the right to a home and a private life.

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Sweden as a country has a significant history of immigration from Europe and the wider world, despite its indigenous population being fairly homogenous (along with those of the other Nordic nations). Since the end of the Second World War, established immigration patterns to Sweden emerged from Yugoslavia and other European countries. During the late twentieth century and into the twenty-first, the country took in large numbers of refugees and asylum seekers from conflict-ridden states, especially Bosnia, Somalia and Iraq. People born outside the Nordic countries show a slightly different problem picture compared with those born in the region. Addiction is twice as common for people born in Nordic countries when compared with people born in other areas of the world but residing in this region. However, a lack of work and associated financial and family strains are more prevalent among people born outside Scandinavia. Among Sweden’s homeless population, as surveyed in the ‘mapping’ studies, a higher proportion of people born outside the Nordic countries were listed as having no other problem than lack of housing, compared with people from Sweden and the Nordic countries, who are more likely to have other issues such as mental illnesses and addictions. Sweden’s indigenous population is an ageing one due to a low birth rate in the latter half of the twentieth century; a higher proportion of people born outside Europe are parents of children under 18 years of age, a trend reflected in the homeless and domiciled populations alike. Homeless people born outside the Nordic countries tend to be younger and to have been homeless for shorter periods of time. This suggests a need to investigate strategies used by homeless immigrants in Sweden and whether they are making use of social networks to avoid sleeping rough, as we saw with women in the UK, who are more likely to ‘couch surf ’. In 1997 Irja Christophs studied 80 homeless women and 159 homeless men born outside Scandinavia who had stayed in Stockholm shelters between 1989 and 1995. The women had often come to Stockholm through arranged marriages and many had been victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse. This group of women differed significantly from women rough sleepers in general: they were younger, they were not addicted to drugs and they had no known mental health problems. They often stayed in a shelter only once, which raises questions as to whether support services are capable of meeting the needs of immigrant women or whether the high rate of short-term engagement with emergency accommodation providers suggests that they do not feel safe or supported in such institutions. One of the key issues arising from work with women rough sleepers in Sweden has been the situation of children and families experiencing

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homelessness. As the number of women rough sleepers is increasing and women are more likely to have children with them, we suggest that further research in this area will be required in the future. Despite the fact that the National Board of Health and Welfare has tried to reach sources of information with knowledge of homeless families with children, there has been a very high non-response rate to questionnaires from both homeless people and service providers. It is difficult to judge whether this is because it is the first time an effort has been made in this type of study to clarify the situation for homeless families with children, whether there may be a disinclination on the part of sources of information to define children as homeless, or whether some other factor is behind this result. However, the situation of parents (usually mothers) and children defined as homeless is an issue not adequately addressed in research or service delivery. Having no home, irrespective of what other problems one might have, can mean living with profound uncertainty. As highlighted in Hanström (1991), the lack of a secure place of one’s own choosing negatively affects chances of a ‘good life’ in general. Unemployment, addiction and disability have been shown to worsen or become entrenched over time for homeless persons, whether or not they can be viewed as ‘causes’ of the initial period of rough sleeping or homelessness (Socialstyrelsen, 2006). In Sweden social services and NGOs have implemented a broad range of support measures for homeless persons – probably more so than in some of the other settings in the women rough sleepers study. In spite of this, those who have been homeless for several years still appear to be unable to climb out of that situation. In addition, only a fifth of homeless persons are homeless as a result of lack of housing itself (Socialstyrelsen, 2006), suggesting a potential physical surplus of residential properties: why, then, can homeless people not seem to take productive steps towards breaking cycles of insecurity? A growing body of research suggests that the ways in which homelessness is defined can themselves contribute to the intractability of the experience. Löfstrand (2012, 106) argues that the increasing ‘medicalisation of the homeless’, in which dominant discursive regimes frame ‘homelessness as an incurable condition’, has led to an overwhelming focus on individual characteristics of homeless persons rather than on structural features of social marginalisation as driving the revolving door of homelessness. She suggests that framing the long-term homeless as chronically mentally ill, functionally impaired and often doubly-diagnosed with addictions, causes the phenomena of homelessness and rough sleeping to be viewed as health and social care issues for which the medical establishment should be responsible,

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rather than politicians or those in control of housing provision. Having a place of one’s own is almost taken off the table as a goal by such discourses, which linguistically and spatially further marginalises people who sleep rough or in insecure circumstances (Beijer, 2001). If social services, health professionals and the housing companies are able to decide that more and more people are not capable of having a place of their own within the ordinary housing market due to their individual pathologies, these persons will continue to be homeless irrespective of how many other measures the various supportive players give them. The National Board of Health and Welfare highlights the fact that social services now have supreme responsibility for persons without a home: ‘Social services, however, are not capable of influencing either the housing market or the housing construction industry’ (Socialstyrelsen, 2006, 22). Not only does this provide a handy political scapegoat for social insecurity in the form of individual traits, it also contradicts ETHOS-style definitions of homelessness that emphasise life course interruptions, shocks and economic factors contributing to the increasing prevalence of marginalised persons on Sweden’s streets.

Swedish legislation The right to housing is guaranteed in both the Swedish Constitution and by law under the Social Services Act 2001. Sweden ratified the Revised European Social Charter on 29 May 1998, accepting 83 of the Revised Charter’s 98 paragraphs, including the Article 31 on the right to housing. While there are no laws that specifically criminalise homelessness there are provisions in Swedish law that may have a negative impact on homeless people. For example, the Swedish Public Order Act 1993 together with local regulations that municipalities have issued under this Act can restrict the number of places where one can publically drink alcohol, bring a pet, sleep in a car or camp out. There are also provisions in the Swedish Penal Code 1962 covering disorderly conduct that may be relevant to homeless people. The 1993 Act also contains regulations regarding order and security in public places. It applies to places designated for public use. Such places include streets and roads, pavements, market squares, parks and beaches. Each Swedish municipality has the right to issue local regulations based upon the Act if such regulations are needed to maintain public order in public places. A violation of any provision of the Act or of a local regulation issued in accordance with the Act is punishable by a fine. Sleeping rough is not specifically prohibited in Sweden, however, the 1993 Act stipulates that using a public place within a local planning

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zone in a manner not in accordance with its intended purpose requires a permit. Non-permit holders may be punished with a fine. A permit is, however, not required if the use is temporary and is to an insignificant extent that does not encroach on someone else’s permit. Since the purpose of, for example, a pavement or a public park is not to provide sleeping space, such usage will require a permit unless it fulfils the exemption requirements above. Consequently, it may be permissible to sleep rough without a permit if a person changes his or her place of sleep frequently (for example to a new location each night) and occupies a comparatively small area without encroaching on another person’s permit to sleep rough. Begging is not criminalised in Sweden, but the criminal offence of disorderly conduct under chapter 16, section 16 of the Swedish Penal Code includes, for example, public urination/defecation. It may also include public intoxication, if the intoxicated person behaves inappropriately. Public intoxication is however not prohibited per se. The Swedish police have the right, in accordance with the Police Act 1984, to send away or remove any person whose appearance and/or behaviour is disturbing or poses a threat to public order. If it is not enough to send the person away the police may also put the person in preventative detention and can contact the appropriate social authority. As regards pets in public spaces the respective municipality has the right to issue local regulations restricting the areas where animals may be and to what extent they must wear a leash. The police will have the right to issue a breach-of-regulations fine for non-compliance. There are no laws or other regulations in Sweden concerning dumpster diving specifically. However, if someone unlawfully takes and uses, or otherwise appropriates something that belongs to another, he or she will be charged with theft or unlawful dispossession (The Swedish Penal Code chapter 8, sections 1 and 8). The same applies to a person who, without any appropriation, fits or breaks a lock or by other means unlawfully disturbs another’s property. If, for example, a grocery store disposes of food and other goods in a dumpster owned by the store, the above will apply to the disposed food for as long as the grocery store believes that the food still holds value to the store. It is not considered a crime under Swedish law to collect recyclable bottles and discarded items with little to no monetary value from public garbage cans or from public areas. Chapter 16, section 16 of the Swedish Penal Code states that a person who is noisy in a public place or who otherwise behaves in a manner likely to arouse public indignation, shall be liable to pay a fine for disorderly conduct. As long as the anti-social behaviour does not

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constitute disorderly conduct in accordance with chapter 16, section 16 of the Swedish Penal Code, such behaviour would not be considered criminal behaviour in Sweden.

Spanish (Andalusian) literature review There is very little literature and research on homelessness and rough sleeping in Spain. It seems to be particularly difficult to access the special situations of women rough sleepers (Cabrera, 1999). In The limits of exclusion: A study of the economic, psychosocial and health factors which affect homeless people in Madrid, Muñoz et al (2003) report that, because of the local and yet dispersed nature of homeless populations, the issue of homelessness as a whole receives only partial coverage, for example in local authority internal documents which are unpublished or which have a narrow dissemination. However, these studies and documents are of great value in providing rich information gained from first hand research by professionals working in the sector. The National Statistics Institute (INE) in Spain has conducted periodic national research about homelessness, rough sleeping and the availability of social services. These have mainly used a quantitative approach, but they do allow us to build an historical overview of the development of homelessness issues in Spain by comparing summative reports from different years of data collection. However, there are key weaknesses with the INE’s homelessness data that cannot be ignored and may particularly cause an under-reporting on women, especially women rough sleepers. Spanish government surveys of homelessness tend to take place in conjunction with homeless shelters and service centres, so there is the risk that only those homeless people who have repeatedly engaged with services may be captured by such reports. As women are more likely than men to ‘couch surf ’, exchange favours for a bed for the night and rely on complex social networks to avoid being literally without a roof, their experiences may very well not be appropriately represented in existing research that relies on traditional, narrow sampling methods. Standard quantitative task-orientated means of collecting statistics, which seem to be the main methodology used in studies of homelessness in Spain, would undoubtedly benefit from being augmented by the kind of ethnographic work we have referred to from the UK, USA and Sweden, of which Sanchez (2011) is a (currently) rare but excellent example. In spite of the lack of specific, in-depth research on women rough sleepers, there is a consensus that social exclusion is a growing problem in today’s Spain; particularly among women (Cabrera, 1999). The

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relationship between rough sleeping and the current economic crisis is not a proven fact, yet samples of social services data seen in the course of the women rough sleepers research show a significant increase in women requesting support during the current downturn. There is also a general increase in people newly arrived to the streets, accompanied by a qualitative increase in the diversity of the homeless population, which includes among some of its most vulnerable groups women (with and without children), families, immigrants, young people and unemployed people without income or social support (Cabrera, 1999). Cabrera also states that, ‘The specific situation of homeless women is an extreme expression of poverty, particularly difficult to detect, study and analyse’ (1999, 13). Although women make up only around 10 or 11 per cent of Spain’s homeless population, two major cities reported an increase in the number of females sleeping rough in 2012–14 (FEANTSA, 2014). Cabrera argues that, overall, more women than men can be considered to be living in poverty as their lives are more likely to contain ‘poverty added situations’ (1999, 15) such as raising children alone or on a low income. Such factors may make women extremely vulnerable to housing insecurity even before the point of being classed as homeless, especially if they are dependent on the private sector to put a roof over the head of their dependants. There is a general consensus among professionals and academics in Spain that the extent of social exclusion for rough sleeping women is generally worse than that of men because it tends to arise from deep and longterm processes of marginalisation and abuse. There is little published academic research addressing the lived reality of rough sleeping for women (but see Sanchez, 2011). Usually, the issue is simply included in generic studies on homelessness (Cabrera, 1999).

Predictors of rough sleeping among women in Spain In general terms from the little research that has been carried out in Spain it is possible to suggest some broadly-categorised predictors of rough sleeping among women in Spain. We note here much crossover between those identified for UK women, in particular past or ongoing experiences of mental distress, gender-based or domestic violence, substance misuse or dependency, unstable employment and persistent social marginalisation (INE, 2013). It is important to stress that these are rarely standalone issues and it is often an accumulation of several of these over a period of years that progressively tips a women over various levels of housing insecurity, rooflessness and into rough sleeping. In addition to indicators or predictors of social exclusion resulting in

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rough sleeping, certain factors have been identified as key areas of risk within the worlds of women who sleep rough. These include involvement in prostitution and sex work, drug dealing and substance misuse, physical and mental health deterioration, exposure to violence, including forms of domination themselves involved in the bureaucracy of seeking support from social and government agencies, which can often be more representative of the needs of males than females, as we have seen in Sweden (above).

Cultural factors among Spanish women rough sleepers In general terms there is vast ignorance of female homelessness and an unknown number of rough sleeping women in Spain. In fact, it is a figure not even published by the INE in their annual surveys. There is currently a lack of resources specific to the needs of rough sleeping women, who are generally more socially excluded than rough sleeping men (Cabrera, 1999; Muñoz et al, 2003; Sanchez, 2011). Multidimensionality, complexity, heterogeneity and constant changes in the situation of women who encounter social exclusion mean that they have complex needs for which assistance is difficult to access and to resource. It is necessary therefore to recognise these problems and to aim to provide suitable and adequate socio-familiar, community and institutional support. This means working towards equal access to basic services for women rough sleepers; as we have discussed, male dominance can be subtly built into systems of accessing support as well as its more obvious role in precipitating a loss of home. The lack of attention paid to the specific needs of women rough sleepers in Spain is astonishing, given the general increase in women being counted as homeless and deterioration of women on several measures of social exclusion and poverty, as already discussed. In the case of women rough sleepers, the theme of violence is prevalent: cited as the most common single reason for women leaving home in 2011 (Fondeville and Ward, 2011). The fact that women who have escaped domestic abuse make up the third largest group assisted by homeless support centres (INE, 2013) is not reflected in the proportion of services targeted towards them, much less to women who make up single parent families with dependent children (Cabrera, 1999). This clearly requires a more developed approach that is attentive to the particular needs of women in their social and cultural context, such as an increase in the provision of alternative accommodation for major shelters, as well as improvements in both the quality and quantity of targeted services. The little information available suggests a largely unmet need for specific

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care and support for women rough sleepers who suffer or have suffered domestic violence, as well as the strengthening of networks to ensure a comprehensive care system with a balance between specialised services and resources with a universal character. The ethnic and cultural profile of Spain’s homeless population also backs up our assertion that the targeting of services towards specific groups requires robust evaluation. With its overland links to the rest of the European continent and close proximity to North Africa, it is unsurprising that Spain’s homeless (as well as its general population) comprise large numbers of people of different nationalities. Only 61 per cent of homeless people captured by INE surveys in 2012 originated from the EU countries, with fully 25 per cent from the African continent (INE, 2012). Cabrera argued in 1999, using FEANTSA statistics, that over 30 per cent of homeless women originated from North Africa alone.1 Having large numbers of the homeless population, and of homeless women in particular, originating from different parts of the world, again suggests a need for targeted services that are sensitive to the cultural realities that service users inhabit. This is not reflected in the general model of homeless support services in Spain, which are still very much based upon large shelters offering a one-size-fitsall package of providing basic nourishment, a bed for the night and rudimentary drug or alcohol misuse advice. The wide availability of drug and alcohol services to homeless people is another way in which service provision is blindly skewed towards the needs of males.

Spanish legislation The right to housing has been guaranteed in the Spanish Constitution since 1978. Article 47 provides that one of the guiding principles of social and economic policy is the right of Spanish citizens to decent and adequate housing. Article 50 refers particularly to the rights of citizens of older age, including access to housing. In terms of the Council of Europe, Spain has signed but not yet ratified the Revised European Social Charter of 1996 nor has it signed or ratified the Additional Protocol of 1995 providing for a System of Collective Complaints.

The fact that Cabrera’s number is higher should not be taken as an indication that the number of homeless immigrants has decreased over time. Rather, Cabrera’s was a longer-term study that relied on FEANTSA statistics, which, as discussed in previous sections, use a wider definition of ‘homeless’ than the INE, whose data collection relies upon people more narrowly classified and already known to service providers.

1

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The latter means that Spain cannot be brought to court for failing to implement the measures required to comply with Article 31 of the Revised Charter through the collective complaint mechanism. Land management, urban planning and housing come exclusively within the powers of every autonomous community in Spain and in some specific cases the articles related to housing rights are further developed. In respect of the implementation of housing rights, the relevant national laws are the following: the Royal Decree 2066/2008 of 12 December, the State Housing Plan and Rehabilitation (2009–12); the Act No 29/1994 of 24 November 1994 on tenancy in urban areas; the 1989 Spanish Civil Code; the Decree No 2114/1968 of 24 July 1968 adopting the regulations on officially subsidised housing; the Act No 57/1968 of 27 July 1968 on the receipt of early payments for the construction and sale of housing – partially amended by Act No 38/1999 of 5 November 1999 on building regulations; the Forced Expropriation Act of 16 December 1954 and the implementing Regulations of 26 April 1957; and the Mortgage Act of 8 February 1946 and the implementing Regulations of 14 February 1947. Spanish law does not directly criminalise homelessness or begging in public places. Municipal ordinances may, however, criminalise homelessness, such as in Madrid. Barcelona also operates an ordinance that forbids homelessness or other organised forms of begging or public nuisance. Begging in public is not in general illegal, but the Spanish Criminal Code makes it an offence to use minors to beg. Municipal authorities may also create nuisance ordinances, which are punished by fines or the removal of personal property. Nuisance ordinances may include dumpster diving, public camping and being in public without fulfilling minimum hygiene standards. 

Hungarian literature review Hungarian legislation, in the form of the Social Act 1993, provides definitions of who may be considered homeless. These are: a person without a registered address other than a homeless shelter, or a person who spends the night in public places or spaces inadequate for living. As we can see, the Act has two distinct definitions for ‘homeless’ people. The first definition is based on whether or not the person possesses an officially registered permanent abode. The second is based on the place in which a person sleeps. However, neither of these definitions corresponds clearly to the FEANTSA ETHOS typology system, which emphasises a more holistic and processual understanding of lacking a place of one’s own, as previously discussed. In Hungary

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the first homeless services came into existence after 1990. They were established primarily by civil organisations, which were not regulated by legislation or service agreements with local authorities, who nevertheless provided some of their funding. As noted, however, since 1993 an official definition of who must be considered homeless exists and this definition is incorporated into Hungarian law, which also mandates some aspects of support service provision. During the last 10 years substantial changes have happened in the legal, regulatory, organisational and financing environment. In addition to the above, there are bodies operating services not prescribed by or complying with the relevant legislation. In April 2011, the city of Budapest voted for a proposal to ban rough sleeping in all its forms. This was rejected by the Constitutional Court in 2012, but reappeared in an amendment to the Constitution in the spring of 2013 (Thorpe, 2013). One of the main issues facing homeless people in Hungary, and women rough sleepers in particular, is the lack of robust information on the nation’s homeless population and services available to them. Even cursory research paints a picture of grave problems with the generation of national information on homelessness in Hungary in that government homelessness statistics are extrapolated simply from traditional census methods and the government does not collect information on homelessness outside the capital or on distinct groups within the general homeless population (Edgar, 2009; Győri, 2005). There is an annual count of rough sleepers and people using temporary accommodation in Budapest, carried out by cooperating homelessness support personnel such as social workers, NGOs and researchers. However, this can but produce a snapshot of the reality of homelessness in this large emerging European nation. In addition, there is no available gender segregated homelessness data. The 2011 Hungarian National Census estimated the number of homeless people to be 17,000 out of a population of 9.9 million (KSH, 2011) although the women rough sleepers research suggests that this figure is wildly unrepresentative – underestimating the number of people who could be classed as homeless under FEANTSA’s ETHOS definition – and alternative organisations regularly claim higher figures. For example, the Homeless World Cup’s 2014 statistics state that the number of homeless people in Hungary is around 20,000 (Homeless World Cup, 2014). Nearly half of Hungary’s homeless population, many of whom routinely sleep rough, can be found in Budapest (Beata, 2000). A great number of homeless people, however, live in other regions of the country, notably Nyiregyhaza and Debrecen in the east, Szeged in the south, Miskolc in the north and Pecs in the west. The estimated

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number of women among the homeless population in Hungary is between 20 and 30 per cent (Győri, 2005). It has been extremely difficult to access information on homeless women in Hungary, and on women rough sleepers in particular, which will unfortunately be reflected in this review. Despite the existence of legislation surrounding homelessness, commentators and activists continually question the actual political will of successive Hungarian governments to deal with housing and homelessness issues. Bakos’ report for FEANTSA’s 2008 Annual Theme on Housing and Homelessness is an extremely useful document for getting to grips with the political issues surrounding homelessness: he argues that, Objectives related to tacking…extreme for ms of homelessness…[cannot] be discovered neither [sic] in the state’s housing policy nor in that of local governments. For instance, homeless people are not given priority in the allocation of social rented housings [sic]. Regarding the prevention of homelessness, benefits aiming at the maintenance of housing have some role in the prevention of indebtedness by their nature; however, their current amount can hardly slow down the indebtedness of households. (Bakos, 2008, 7) Substantial attention has been given to homelessness in Hungary by European initiatives from organisations including FEANTSA and the EU, yet this seems not to have been reflected in the generation of robust information on the national scale of the issues nor in increased support for state, NGO or academic intervention (Edgar, 2009; Győri, 2005). The 2008 report points out that a particular concern is the physical lack of adequate, affordable housing existing in Hungary, especially outside of Budapest. Homelessness support services have traditionally followed a rehabilitation-based approach to ending cycles of housing insecurity and homelessness – one which is not without its own issues and critiques – but have found that service users can fall at the last hurdle, as it were, and slide back into homelessness through the simple lack of adequate housing available to them once they are deemed ‘ready’ to live independently. Bakos (2008) highlights the government’s efforts, since the turn of the millennium, to devote more of the housing budget to paying housing benefits, with the aim of decreasing renters’ indebtedness and therefore preventing people sliding into eviction and homelessness. The conclusion emerging from a critical reading

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of this report, however, is that throwing money at the maintenance of inadequate housing in amounts that will not necessarily prevent people from losing their homes in the long term is counterintuitive to solving the greater housing problem in the country, which is that there simply is not enough of it. It seems that the Hungarian government’s lack of will to deal with the problem of inadequacies in both the amount and quality of housing is a main factor at all points of the vicious circle of housing insecurity and homelessness: one could argue that these inadequacies can be both the tipping point for loss of home and the factor preventing people re-entering domiciled living after a period of homelessness.

Predictors of rough sleeping among Hungarian women It has been extremely difficult to access comparative information on women rough sleepers in Hungary, and much of the data generated by the women rough sleepers project came from extensive primary research that our project teams were required to carry out due to an apparent lack of existing knowledge among agencies and academics working with the homeless (Edgar, 2009; Moss and Singh, 2012). The following figures summarise findings published in Moss and Singh’s (2012) final report. The average age of women rough sleepers in Hungary is 47 years, which is slightly higher than in some of the other countries studied, and 75 per cent have children, also a higher figure than found elsewhere. Their ethnicity is mainly white eastern European, in addition to a small but significant proportion of Romany gypsies. Both the women and the SP reported that there were cultural problems for Romanies who felt subject to stigma and racial abuse. The prevalence of these within the sample may also be underrepresented as with the Eastern European and other cultures in the UK sample. In general, many of the key issues experienced by women rough sleepers in Hungary in terms of the predictors and risks of their sleeping rough are comparable to those noted in other countries studied. The majority of women seeking shelter – alone or with children – are victims of violence. Over half of women who sleep rough in Hungary have experienced domestic abuse in their lives, be this at the hands of a partner or other family members. A significant proportion had been in state care at some point in their lives and had experienced physical and sexual abuse in such institutions. Many women rough sleepers interviewed by project teams were ambivalent about whether domestic abuse had played a causal role in their becoming homeless, yet project staff often felt that, more often than not, causality could be attributed

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in this regard. Often, the women themselves felt that they had only become homeless after a dominant man – father or partner – leaving them, at which point they could not financially support housing for themselves and/or their children. Again, there is no data available on the number of women who lose their homes by fleeing an abusive relationship. Neither can we find official overview and analysis of violence against homeless women in Hungary (Edgar, 2009). Some homeless care services and institutions are familiar with these issues and are prepared to deal with it; others are not. There is, however, no common strategy, professional guidelines or even proposed action regarding the treatment and prevention of violence against women. Primary research indicated that there was little institutional support available to women who were victims of multiple forms of abuse; some reported situations being ignored or even getting worse after reporting to the police. Of women rough sleepers interviewed by our projects, 45 per cent reported mental health issues, which is comparable to the rates of mental ill health experienced by women rough sleepers in the UK. An interesting feature is that there is much less substance misuse and dependency reported by women rough sleepers in Hungary, at just 5–10 per cent, and none of the women rough sleepers interviewed reported being involved in sex work, although staff often disagreed with this. This could be due to cultural taboos surrounding drugs and sex in the region, or perhaps suggests a need for more culturally sensitive methods of questioning to elicit responses on these topics.

Cultural factors among Hungarian women rough sleepers It is important also to contextualise these issues within the wider context of what is happening socially and politically in Hungary at the present time. Extra funds that were promised as part of the programme never reached homeless care institutions.  Also in December 2010, Parliament adopted an amendment to the law on constructions, which allows for penalising the improper use of public spaces as a petty offence and searching through garbage is banned in the eighth district. In April 2011, the General Assembly of Budapest adopted a decree pronouncing habitation in public spaces a petty offence. The very same decree makes street music subject to permission and a payable fee. In May 2011, Mayor Máté Kocsis called for a district referendum to justify his penalising policies against homeless people in the eighth district. Although the results are invalid due to low participation, the mayor fails to revoke the ban on rummaging through garbage claiming

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that it is supported by 80 per cent of the voters, and in August 2011, Mayor István Tarlós talks about ‘homeless crime’. In December 2011, Parliament adopted the new Penal Code, which allowed local governments across the country to punish habitual residence in public spaces and define further antisocial, forbidden behaviours. The new legislation took effect on 15 April 2012 and in May 2012, the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights applied to the Constitutional Court requesting the repeal of the legislation criminalising homelessness. In November 2012, the Constitutional Court ruled that penalising homelessness is unconstitutional and annuls the aforementioned act. The Constitutional Court deems homelessness a social issue, which should not be addressed through law enforcement. By a complementary decree of the court, all penalty fees have to be paid back to those who had been fined under the law. In March 2013, Parliament adopted the fourth amendment of the Fundamental Law, which permits Parliament or local governments to restrict the use of public spaces for habitation in order to preserve public order, public safety, public health and cultural values. By April 2013, a few days after the adoption of the fourth amendment, the Minister of Interior submits another amendment to the Penal Code, which resumes the prohibition of habitual residence in public spaces, and, also prohibits the building of shacks in public spaces. In the same month, the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights applies to the Constitutional Court for a review of the Fundamental Law, which does not find any formal inadequacies. Due to the fourth amendment, the Court is not allowed to examine the contents of the new constitution. The Hungarian Criminal Code includes sections on physical, sexual and even verbal (defamation) assaults, but none of these sections have proven useful in combating the different forms of systematic abuse usually suffered in cases of domestic violence or other forms of violence against women. The language is gender-neutral, and the specific crimes do not take the recurrent and escalating nature of violence against women into account. Male violence in the family is a nonexistent phenomenon within Hungarian law and it has been argued in other publications that the soil on which men’s violence against women thrives and the barrier to addressing it is the invisibility of violence against women. Through the cases in this publication, we wish to demonstrate how the law maintains and strengthens this invisibility. The framework of legal regulations and their application is unable to grasp the reality of battered women. The legal system is based on the viewpoint of the powerful (white, middle-class heterosexual men) therefore if applied

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rigidly, this framework cannot be applied, or can only be applied inappropriately, to domestic violence. Discriminative application of law in choosing our cases for strategic litigation, we strove to show in an unambiguous way, how authorities apply the same regulations to the advantage of men and the disadvantage of women. The most conspicuous evidence of the invisibility of domestic violence is that the term ‘domestic violence’ does not exist in the effective legal regulations in Hungary. Currently it is only the National Police Chief ’s Order 32/2007 (OT 26) that contains a definition for domestic violence although it is not comprehensive. Those drafting the order disregarded the recommendations of the organisations publishing the present study. The definition in the new ‘Act on restraining orders applicable in the case of violence between family members’ is not an improvement to this situation either. Under that Act domestic violence consists in threats against protected persons, which is difficult to interpret and its practical application is highly questionable. There is no comprehensive national strategy or policy on how to combat domestic violence. While there are guidelines for police on domestic violence, they are not sufficiently implemented and there are no comparable guidelines for prosecutors and judges. The lack of reliable statistical data on domestic violence also complicates the assessment of the prevalence of domestic violence in Hungary. The response of the police to domestic violence is inadequate and constitutes failure to protect the public from violent crime. Furthermore, there is insufficient training to ensure a better response. The system of temporary preventive restraining orders, which excludes certain categories of women and which is not applied by police unless there is a formal complaint made, is ineffective, and the courts apply inconsistent standards when it comes to confirming or extending orders.

Hungarian legislation The right to housing is not guaranteed by the Hungarian Constitution. In terms of the Council of Europe, Hungary ratified the Revised European Social Charter 2009 and accepted 60 of the Revised Charter’s 98 paragraphs, but this did not include Article 31 on the right to housing. Since 2011 there has been some legislation, which protects individuals facing eviction. The ‘eviction quota system’ was introduced to protect mortgage holders threatened by evictions but it is suggested that this will probably be abolished sometime in 2015. There has been a systematic undermining of the homeless within Hungary, which began in earnest in December 2010 with the clearing

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of the Budapest underground under the supervision of Mayor István Tarlós. In April 2011, the General Assembly of Budapest adopted a decree pronouncing that habitation in public spaces would be a petty offence and that street music (for example busking) must be subject to permission and a fee would be levied. In October 2011, begging and the use of public spaces as habitual residences was also prohibited. Within what could be termed a comprehensive ‘law-and-order’ campaign, hundreds of homeless people have since been subjected to short-term arrest and this was followed in November 2011 by the Hungarian Parliament passing another amendment to their Penal Code which makes it a criminal offence to reside habitually in public spaces or to store belongings there. Repeat offenders risk imprisonment for up to 60 days or a fine of up to 150,000 HUF (approximately US $700). In January 2013 in Budapest and on the underground, barriers appeared in public areas with ‘construction work’ and ‘slippery surface’ signs. Residents of Budapest said their purpose was clearly not to ensure public safety, but to keep homeless people away. Key international organisations have criticised the Hungarian governments approach to its homeless citizens but this has not prevented this being proactively entrenched by the government within the Hungarian Constitution under the ‘Fourth Amendment of the Fundamental Law 2013’. Once the criminalisation of the homeless was entrenched within the Constitution, it was only a matter of time before local governments also banned them from public areas. In the summer of 2013, a district in Budapest issued a decree prohibiting ‘residential habitation’ (living in public places), banning ‘dumpster-diving,’ and taking unwanted items left on the streets for disposal by the authorities. Offenders face fines of up to 150,000 HUF (US $655), community service or even jail sentences for repeated violations. In other words, homeless people with nowhere else to go are now targeted as criminals for being poor.

Conclusion It seems clear to us from previous research and literature in this area that the problem of women’s homelessness continues to be an issue of major concern throughout Europe. In most countries, provision for the homeless is in the main the remit of NGOs, charities and religious organisations and governments continue to perceive homelessness as a ‘people’ problem rather than a social problem, which in many cases, is inextricably linked to poverty. The literature in this field also suggests that homelessness continues to be a social stigma for those people who endure it. Perceptions of the homeless are based on ideas that it is only

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a particular type of person that becomes homeless, or that it is through personal fault of some kind and one of the main barriers to finding effective solutions will be to surmount these social stereotypes. Women in particular are vulnerable while homeless. They have distinct mental and physical health problems, issues of being disconnected from their children, vulnerability to sexual exploitation and trafficking, and as a result often become involved in inappropriate relationships with men on the street who may take advantage of them. Women are less likely to engage with street outreach teams, most often because they are far less visible on the street than men, as they feel less safe. Our research demonstrates that homeless women do not define themselves either as victims of domestic violence, even when they have endured years of abuse from families and/or partners, or as victims of exploitation by prostitution when they exchange sexual favours for a bed for the night. These women require distinct intervention, women only provision and access to services provided by organisations that are specifically trained to deal with the severe issues of comorbidity with which such women present. Within the current economic crises that prevail across the European Union, it appears that although there are certain differences between the countries in this study, there are also some remarkable similarities. Orchard (2013) has found generalised increases in homelessness across the EU as well as changing profiles of the homeless; in particular a rise in the number of homeless women. Pathways into homelessness are generally well rehearsed and result from (among other issues) relationship causes but also structural and economic causes such as reductions in benefits, unemployment and limited access to housing. Legislation in each country in this study, covers areas of both housing and the conduct of individuals in public spaces. The common theme here seems to be that such legislation is always focused on those sections of society towards which authorities appear to have a dislike. The history of this goes back even further to the sixteenth century when anti-vagrancy measures were introduced to tackle an increase in the numbers of homeless people following the dissolution of the monasteries and Elizabethan legislation against beggars, suspected witches and gypsies. The forerunner of modern vagrancy laws was the Vagrant Act 1744, which divided beggars and so-called ‘idle persons’ into categories such as the unemployed, those refusing to work, those not supporting their families, rogues and vagabonds, and ‘incorrigible rogues’ – who had been convicted an offence or offences previously. These wide definitions enabled the authorities to operate a policy of clearance on virtually any person deemed to be ‘not giving

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a good account of themselves’ such as buskers and actors. Negative attitudes towards these categories of people were compounded by the introduction, in the eighteenth century, of rewards for identifying vagrants, beggars or ‘disorderly people’. Inevitably this practice was open to abuse and, later, moral panics about vagrants turning into more serious criminals such as burglars and highwaymen. It is however, somewhat futile to fine a homeless person, since they clearly would not have the money to pay a fine and this approach does nothing to solve the underlying problem of homelessness and poverty. Punitive approaches to homelessness will not work. Local policymakers must recognise the distinction between intolerance of homeless people and intolerance of the manifestations of the problem of homelessness. Ultimately, the cycle of homelessness will only be broken when policies address the causes and effectively move people into housing. The following chapter focuses on the analysis of the data collected from women rough sleepers.

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FOUR

Analysing and understanding the problem: women rough sleepers’ stories We explained in Chapter One that the research methodology for this study was shaped by grounded theory and qualitative ethnographic interviewing in relation to the personal narratives of the women and organisations that took part in the study. We also elucidated why grounded theory methods were appropriate and that since this study involved both qualitative and quantitative elements, one of the first activities we undertook was to design the research instruments to be used for the study. With the collaboration of the partners in the study, two semi-structured ethnographic interview schedules for ‘key informants’ (that is, the organisations who were involved in working with homeless women at that time) and for the women rough sleepers themselves were produced. Our intention was to sample a maximum of 27 key informants and 20 women rough sleepers in each country. Each interview was designed to take not more than 60 minutes to complete and each interview was translated into the languages of the partner country before being recorded, transcribed and then translated back into English in order to be thematically analysed by the University of Wolverhampton research team. This was followed by joint team discussion of the issues raised to ensure that robust findings emerged from the research process. The full semi-structured interview schedules can be found in the Appendix. Ethnographic interviewing is a type of qualitative research that combines immersive observation and either structured or semistructured face-to-face interviews. This method of interviewing is a form of contextual inquiry that is useful in gathering qualitative data about the individuals you have targeted in your study. This was an ideal method for us to collect the type of data we wanted from both women rough sleepers themselves and from the organisations that worked with them. In all cases, we accessed organisations at their own place of work and also the women rough sleepers who were their clients. In this way we were able to carry out the interviews in a setting that was more natural and familiar for both women rough sleepers and the service providers. This kind of observation, which takes place within a

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normal environment for the interviewees can thus uncover important details to the interviewer concerning the attitudes and behaviours of those being interviewed. It is important to remember when carrying out this type of ethnographic interviewing and especially when one is dealing with emotive issues involved in homelessness, there can be extremely sensitive issues at play and even traumatising accounts of experiences. The way we, as researchers, deal with this should not be underestimated. Theoretical sensitivity to the data allows the researcher to delve more deeply into issues that present themselves as the research plays out. For example, if we discovered in the course of interviews that many women experienced particular types of abuse, we might develop that particular line of questioning, thus producing a continuous interplay between the collection of the data and its ongoing analysis, which in cases like this, is actually partially being analysed during its collection. This process is known as ‘theoretical sampling’ and basically means that the sampling may at times be driven by emerging theories to a point where it is perhaps no longer possible to learn anything more. This is called the ‘point of saturation’. The semi-structured face-to-face interviews were accomplished in partnership with agencies whose workers were best placed to identify those women and young people who were known to either sleep, or have slept rough. It should be noted that this was an extremely difficult aspect of the research in each country that took part in the study. Clearly, issues of access and willingness to participate in the study made this quite difficult to achieve and it is testament to the perseverance of the interviewers that so many were successfully carried out. This also would not have been possible if it had not been for the huge support received by the researchers, from service providers and other agencies who put them in touch with this very hard to reach group. It is also important to note that an in-depth discussion between the partners took place before these research instruments were drafted. In particular agreement had to be sought about the definitions of homelessness/rough sleeping/rooflessness/domestic or intimate partner violence that the research team wished to adopt. This was a very important aspect of the research in the sense that it was agreed that the definitions should be kept as broad as possible in order to best reflect the differing legal, social, policy and cultural dimensions of rough sleeping in each partner country taking part in the study. During the course of data collection we made notes about ideas or insights that became evident during the course of the interviews. Particular words or phrases that were used consistently by interviewees

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were noted, for the purposes of coding later on. It was also important to record the reactions of those being interviewed since this also gave insights into levels of understanding of what was being asked: sensitivity to certain difficult questions and also the capacity of each interviewee to concentrate on what was being asked. This was important in order to be able to compare results across the samples. The relevance of conducting face to face qualitative interviews was that we needed to ask the homeless women and children about their experiences, to understand what they had to say, to gather facts from them as to the circumstances of their homelessness, what led to it, what form it took, what effects it had on them, but also to gain some meaning from this – the story behind their experiences. This allowed for more in-depth discussion of issues that arose during the course of the interviews, for notes to be made about emerging themes and issues of particular of interest and inevitably sometimes the shocking things that were said. This method also enabled us to follow up things that were said at the time and to gauge the responses. Undertaking fieldwork like this is far more time intensive and emotionally draining than might be thought. Time is required to set up the interviews in the first place. This is a very difficult task with hard to reach or vulnerable groups. If you have a captive audience in prison, for example, that might be one thing, however, the hoops that have to be jumped through to get access even then are significant. In our case, we had to access an extremely hard to reach and vulnerable group of people who in the main kept their homelessness hidden and the only way of accessing them was through the networks of homeless NGOs and charities with which we made contact. Even after making contact with providers, persuading them of the benefits of taking part in the research was difficult. Service providers were also understandably protective of the customers with whom they dealt and certainly did not want to put them through unnecessarily traumatic re-telling of circumstances that had led to their homelessness in the first place. Thought and sensitivity must be given to the approach that is used here. We felt it was appropriate to emphasise not only the anonymous nature of taking part in the research, but also that it could be seen as providing help to others in the same situation and vital information to policy makers subsequently in producing more effective ways of working with and assisting women rough sleepers. We wanted the women who took part in the study to feel recognised and valued and that their contribution was a vitally important one. Our open-ended semi-structured interview thus had the potential to be conversational to allow for other issues to be discussed if they arose, for the researcher to

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stray off the exact path of the interview schedule if necessary in order to follow up important information. This is a better way of conducting an interview but it does require a great deal of skill on the part of the interviewer. Imagine walking into a room to meet someone you have never seen before – someone who is vulnerable, probably suspicious. Our approach was often to find something out about each woman from the organisation who had facilitated the interview. For example, at one interview I was told by the organisation that ‘Mandy’ (not her real name) was difficult, could not concentrate for more than 10 minutes at a time and I would be lucky to get anything out of her at all. After asking about this woman I found out she followed football and had a favourite team. Since my husband and son were also season ticket holders at their local club, the topic of football was an ‘in’ for me with Mandy. I chatted with her about football at the start of the interview and this ice-breaker enabled me to interview her for over an hour and to get some fantastic data. Making a connection with your interviewee is often critical but there are also drawbacks, particularly if what they tell you is traumatic in nature. The interviewer cannot help but be drawn into the world of the interviewee. Asking people about difficult experiences and sensitive issues is a skilled undertaking but it also has an impact on your own emotions. The skill of the researcher includes good organisation beforehand and for an interviewer to rehearse what is going to be asked and how, and the manner in which this will be done. This may vary depending on the situation or type of interviewee. You need to present to the interviewee that you are in control of the research, that you know all about it and can explain it to them in a straightforward way that can be easily understood. More important is to explain their importance to the study: why their experiences are crucial in helping to understand the issues in question better and to help to change things for the better in the future or to enhance knowledge and understanding of their experiences. In terms of sampling, we had to literally go with what we got. We accessed women rough sleepers from the West Midlands to start with, but then went further afield through agencies that we knew. Our partners did the same in their own countries. The samples were entirely random in this sense but subsequently our experiences told us that there were, demographically, women that were not evident within our study because we had not been able to get access to them – for example Asian women. It is important that if you find this, that you are up front about not being able to generalise your data to a wider population. This is not to say that your sample is not important, but just that it may not be indicative of every woman rough sleeper out

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there. What follows in this chapter is an overview of the data we collected from women rough sleepers. The data gathered in relation to the organisation involved in working with women rough sleepers is discussed in the next chapter. For the purposes of the analysis of data, shortened versions of the questions were collected into the following themes since the women represented in these samples were both hard to reach, often unable to concentrate for long periods of time and often confused or inconsistent. Within this chapter figures and statistics are not given, since the purpose of this chapter and the following one is provide the reader with a sense of the rich qualitative data that was collected and how that data was analytically themed. Chapter Six will provide the quantitative data; however, before this – and to elucidate the sensitive life stories in each of these interviews – we want to demonstrate how each transcript was analysed by reducing it into the following headings. About you The women interviewed in this sample were asked a range of questions relating to their demographic characteristics, education, children and experience of education work or training. Your situation In this section the women rough sleepers were asked questions about why and for how long they slept rough; what their life was like before they slept rough; relationships within the home and with partners; alcohol and drug abuse by family or partners; resultant abusive behaviour; the effects this had on them and any contact with the police, prison service or other organisations. Life on the street In this section of the interview, the women rough sleepers were asked questions about where they slept when roofless; what happened to children; the worst things about sleeping rough; use of alcohol or drugs; sex work or sexual threats and how the RS came to an end. Your health In this section women rough sleepers were asked about their general health, current treatment; issues linked to RS specifically; attendance at

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hospital or A&E; mental health issues and use of services in relation to any of these problems; drug or alcohol use; medication or intervention for drug problems. Access to services In this section women rough sleepers were asked about the types of support they may have received and from which agencies; whether they had directly accessed services for rough sleepers; if problems been treated seriously by those agencies. They were also asked for their opinion on women only services for women who had slept rough. General issues Women rough sleepers were asked if they wanted to comment on their hopes for the future, what they thought could be done to stop women sleeping rough and if there was anything else they wanted to add. What follows are samples of the stories that women conveyed to us through these qualitative interviews within the themes above. Although lengthy, these narratives are rich and intense in nature and it is crucial to get a flavour of what women rough sleepers told us during the course of this research in order to subsequently understand the context and human nature of the subsequent overview of this analysis which appears in Chapter Seven. In this chapter we concentrate on those stories told to us by women who had, or were sleeping rough and within each theme we take examples from each country in turn in order to provide the reader with some sense of comparison. A narrative follows each section summarising the themes.

Women’s themed narratives from the UK, Hungary, Spain and Sweden About you: UK women ‘I’m 18 years old. Lived in an abusive family then left to live with an abusive partner, got evicted, slept rough but now I live in a bedsit. No qualifications, I did not like school, I truanted and left early. I’m on benefits but I often run out of money so I shoplift. I don’t have no experience of work or training.’

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‘I’m 26 years old. I had been in a relationship but I’ve been single for the past five years; I’ve got a daughter who’s 9… she lives with my mother. Left school with no qualifications. I’m on benefits…. I have worked as a prostitute…I had a ‘sugar daddy’ who gave me money when I needed it. I’ve worked in the past packing paint by numbers, a lock factory and Monmore Green [the dog racing track in Wolverhampton].’ ‘I’m 44 years old; I was married at 16, divorced by 17. Got two children and three grandchildren. I liked school, loved sports…was top at shot put but I left school at 15 because I met my partner and needed to get out the house because of sexual abuse by my Dad. He sexually abused all of us [his daughters]. I think my Mum knew but did nothing about it. I left my husband ’cos of the abuse and slept rough.’ ‘I’m 26 and Indian Sikh. I separated from my husband…he drank and beat me. I was educated in India, but I’ve got no qualifications and now I’m on benefits. The local temple sometimes feeds me; I can’t speak English so I can’t get a job but I would like to work. The temple found me a one bedroom flat after I had been sleeping rough for about a month. I don’t have any family or friends in the UK.’ About you: Hungarian women ‘I had two marriages both of them failed.’ ‘I collect bottles. I take temporary jobs (cleaning the windows, general cleaning). Outdoor collecting bottles things like that.’ ‘I qualified and worked as a nurse for 30 years. Now it’s difficult to get another job after being laid off work 12 months ago. I’d like another job as a nurse again. Basically I am not qualified enough. Medicine is constantly developing so merely being experienced is not satisfactory for applying for a new job. Also, I’m not young and pretty anymore; at a private clinic they won’t even consider hiring someone like me. They want nurses in their twenties, who also look because of representative matters. Doctors want nurses who

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have a university/college degree. One needs money to be higher educated. Now that I don’t have money I can’t do anything. I was brought up in a very poor family. A nurse needs special clothing, slippers…I don’t have money to buy shampoo, nobody wants to be treated by a nurse who has greasy hair.’ ‘The hardest thing is to find a job. Somebody who lives at a homeless shelter won’t get a job. Nobody wants to work with a homeless or worse with someone who has a criminal record. You shouldn’t admit not having a home.’ About you: Spanish women ‘I was alone in life. At age 14 or so I left my house, I ran away from home, I was put in a boarding school. I escaped the boarding school, I became rebellious.’ ‘I have always worked in prostitution from an early age.’ ‘I had to leave because we had no money to pay the rent and resorted to social services because I was on the street that night and it is a very desperate place and they looked after me and gave me a place to stay. For me it was an economic situation.’ ‘I come from a very dysfunctional family, my mother is an alcoholic also and from the age of 17 I was out of the house.’ About you: Swedish women ‘I lived in Denmark until the age of three years old with both parents. Then I lived alone with my mother for the rest of her years. She was an alcoholic and pill addict.’ ‘I rely on social assistance in order to support myself. I previously worked as a store manager. Sometimes I have no money in which case I try to borrow from someone or I do without.’ ‘I live on social assistance but it is always the case that I run out of money so I resort to stealing.’

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‘My parents are from Turkey, but I was born in Sweden, in 1965 here in Malmö; my first husband who abused me for eight years. I have a partner now and been together four years – he has also been a drug addict. My father was a drug/heroin addict and an alcoholic mother. Went to school until the 9th grade and then met a guy and married early. I trained as a chef. I have been living on welfare for 30 years. Then I have four children from three different fathers – I have a son aged 24, a daughter of 17, a daughter of 12 and a boy of 6.’

Narrative Within this theme all the women in the four samples demonstrated some commonality in terms of their experience of abuse within the family and/or from partners or husbands. In those few cases where this did not occur, family dysfunction was still key. In almost all cases the women cited failed relationships – usually due to abuse – as the main reason for their subsequent homelessness. The majority of women in all the samples had little or no education or training but the majority expressed a keen wish to work but also cited that either lack of education or training or simply the fact that they were homeless made this difficult. Some women admitted to being engaged in prostitution. Our researchers noted that while other women said they knew of women who did this, but had not done it themselves, the impression that was gained was that many women did not want to admit to this – reinforcing the pressure of social stereotyping that many women clearly felt. Most of the women had children – usually with several different men – but were in most cases separated from their children who were either in care, fostered, adopted or being looked after by relatives. Thus there was large proportion of women who were separated from their children. Your situation: UK women ‘I’ve been homeless three times now. First time I became homeless was just before my 18th birthday. I hated my mom…because up until about three months ago I always blamed her for my dad’s death…so I held that against her and I was constantly mis-behaving at school…run away… just leaving…she’d never know where I was.’

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‘Once they started putting hands on me that’s it I leave… children or no children I will take my kids and I run…I actually brought a tent and [a] person helped me learnt to set the tent up and things like that…so like I said don’t ever leave that person unattended for one minute…even if you fall out and you have an argument and you say I’ve had enough and you throw your bag down and you walk away you go back – you cool off – and go back and check to see if they are okay.’ ‘I have [been in trouble with the police] five shoplifting offences and one possession of crack cocaine. But I’ve never been to prison, touch wood, not at the moment…I’ve been on probation, I’ve been on drug rehabilitation order which finished last Wednesday but I’m still on probation at the moment, but some places do help…but having found probation and **** House that helped forward my housing situations.’ Your situation: Hungarian women ‘I had a very happy childhood. All was well until my mother got married again. I was 13 when he tried to rape me, but I was strong enough to fight him off. I was ashamed. I hit him so hard that his lips split up – I was told that I had been brutal. Me! Then they moved away…I stayed with my grandmother.’ ‘I lost my job last July. So naturally I lost my apartment as well because I could not pay the rent. I had job seekers allowance for a few months. It was not much, it was really difficult to pay the rent and feed and clothe my son.’ ‘Lived with parents. At the age of 14 my father told me and my elder sister that he did not have to support us and he put us on the street. Our life was very miserable. My childhood was miserable. I went to my friend and I stayed there for a few nights. I got to know a man and we got together. With him for three years and my elder son was born from this relationship. I was 17. My son was three and was often ill. He has to be kept under continuous medical monitoring, so he was taken to an institute where he could be watched.’

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‘Stepfather from the age of five to eight looked after me. He was ‘sexually naughty’ with me. My mother used to hit me quite often. I went to school and then they discussed there that I would go to an institute. I was around nine. Then I was interrogated and there was a trial and it turned out that my mother had given me to him. My stepfather got two years and my mother one and a half years suspended because she had a child by that time. Stayed in institute until the age of 21. I was put in an institute for adults later because I had mental problems.’ ‘I tried getting help from the police, but they told me they would not intervene unless there was blood. They did not even write down my complaint.’ Your situation: Spanish women ‘In the villages the men hit women…it was like a very normal thing. First my father beat me with belts then my partner told me that he wore the pants and I did not.’ ‘I have raised five children, I have worked hard since I was small but my husband beat me, abused me physically, psychologically, everything. I had to be obedient and if I was I did not get beaten.’ ‘My husband hit me and did many bad things when I was pregnant and then he told me he wanted the children and me out of his life. Then I went to the shelter at Huelva, the women’s centre, I spent three days in the emergency accommodation there and since then I’ve been here and I am nine months pregnant.’ ‘Every day when I woke up I could not go outside, I had a shattered bloody face, and a blood-filled house; my children were “scared shitless”. One day he came at me with a stick and started to stab at me with it. Then he burnt me with his cigarette…and when I called out he came at me as if to kill me with the stick in his hand. A policeman lived close by and when my children started screaming the policeman, who was in his pyjamas, came out. I got into a shelter. I went to Cordoba and I put in the complaint and the next

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day made a statement about what happened. He stated that I had hit him, but he beat me day in and day out because I think he believed it was normal or something. They gave him a four-year restraining order and he got two years in prison.’ Your situation: Sweden ‘I have been married three times and all my partners were addicts. The first one beat me regularly, even while sleeping. I had my hair pulled and was once dragged to the cemetery where I had to dig my own grave…he was described as “completely insane.”.’ ‘My partner was very jealous type and was a criminal. He drank a lot and took drugs which led him to becoming aggressive as a result. Friends knew about the abuse but I never reported it because we were both involved in criminal activities.’ ‘My partner expected me to obey him. When he went out he would lock the door behind him so I could not go out the house and he did not provide me with a key to the house. He expected me to sit at home, cook, clean, wash his clothes…he wanted me to always serve and obey him. I wasn’t even allowed to speak to the neighbours and he did not trust me when speaking on the phone and would listen in on the conversations. I was not even allowed to visit my daughter in Sweden from my first marriage. I wanted to return to Sweden so eventually arrangements were made by the agencies to take me from England to Sweden without his knowledge.’ ‘When I was 10 years of age I ran away from home due to arguments and slept rough in a stairwell. I was subject to violence from a previous partner who at one point kept me locked in for several days, he jumped with both feet on my face and I thought that he would kill me. He would put a pillow on my face and then sit on top. He would drag me by the hair but I felt I had no choice but to stay with him. This went on for three or four years and he would be under

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the influence of drugs. He was eventually imprisoned for six months.’

Narrative Within this theme, we found that women had multiple experiences of rough sleeping or homelessness, which as we have said previously were in the main as result of domestic abuse. Interestingly in the Spanish sample, domestic abuse within relationships appeared to be classed as the norm alongside the experience of very controlling relationships with men. The women in our samples often gave extremely compelling examples of the severe violence they had experienced resulting in horrific injuries and psychological trauma to them and their children. Many women admitted to having been in trouble with the police although a very small proportion had been to prison. Most women admitted to shoplifting. Life on the street: UK women ‘The worst thing about sleeping rough was leaving the kids and then thinking for fuck sake man I got that level of shit that was at home and now I’m like more simple to be fair, probably if I stayed at home, not married Carl I would have still ended up on the streets because I couldn’t have put up with that; now I realise what was going on because I was old enough to realise what was going on…I wasn’t staying at home so you know what I mean.’ ‘The worse thing about sleeping rough was not being able to sleep at all in case someone would come in rob your things, or even try and…I don’t know kill you maybe if you were in deep sleep.’ ‘I think…the rough sleeping affects you more mentally than anything else…I suppose even as a man you can’t say that a man wouldn’t feel as bad as a woman if they were homeless but obviously you are more vulnerable because of rape and stuff like that…so obviously you’re always constantly thinking about that…then it’s like you feel like people are trying to take advantage and stuff because you think that if someone does offer you help if you’ve gone through that

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kind of sexual abuse and stuff you don’t know whether you can actually trust them.’ ‘It is hard on the streets but you can eat out of dustbins and things like that and you can go into the doctor’s…I’m not ashamed to tell anybody…I have to eat out the bins.’ Life on the street: Hungarian women ‘The worst part is the weekends or holidays when a daytime warming room is not open, we cannot go anywhere because there are too many of us. There is no place. It is really bad if it is raining or the wind is blowing and I am not dressed properly. I am cold.’ ‘I need to work, I need money. I was working as a street cleaner, working day and night shifts. I slept in a park. I was up at 4.30 am, I put on my uniform, my shoes and I was ready to start working. This lasted for about two years. It was really tough.’ ‘In the weekends, when only two day centres are open in the whole city! We cannot even come inside during the day to use the toilets! We have to go to the bushes on the corner (she starts to cry). I don’t even eat on those days so I don’t have to go to the bathroom. It is much easier for men: they just stand by a tree. But us women are left without any bathroom to use during the weekends! In the twenty-first century! If this happened in Africa or some faraway island I would understand. This is so humiliating. What have we done to deserve this? None of us are here by choice! We do not have anything. Now a long weekend is coming up. I hope it won’t rain. People pass by us waiting on the corner and they make comments about us. It is so humiliating. Sometimes policemen come and tell us to go away. I ask them where we could go to? I tell them that the day centre is closed during the weekend, we have nowhere to go! We cannot even take a tram or the metro, we don’t have the money to buy a ticket!’ ‘I usually spend my day in the day centre for the homeless. We play cards and we pass the day. I only have a spare set

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of clothes that I carry with me in this bag. The day centre closes at 4 pm and the shelter opens at 6 pm so we have to wait in line here for two hours. This is the worst part of it. No matter what the weather is like we have to wait here for two hours. If we come later there might not be room anymore. So I would come here early and wait.’ Life on the street: Spanish women ‘I’m on the river in a tent, for almost 10 years.’ ‘I was in the hostel but was robbed and prefer to sleep on the roof where I am now.’ ‘I have never had to resort to prostitution although I agree that women do so out of necessity, at least those with children who have to be fed.’ ‘I do not trust anyone, the street has taught me not to trust anyone.’ ‘The Mayor and now the new Commissioner of the premises are harassing us, because many people have pets and cannot get into a shelter and keep your pet. Dogs do not lie, do not steal.’ Life on the street: Swedish women ‘It’s cold on the streets and you have to keep going and going and going otherwise you freeze to death by either cycling or walking. When I slept outside in winter I felt panic that I might not wake up tomorrow…therefore it is better to stay awake all night.’ ‘I have stayed in a hotel, lived in tents and lived in a caravan. The longest I lived in a tent is two years in Malmö. The worst thing about rough sleeping is the cold and trying to stay clean. I was beaten up once by another woman while rough sleeping.’ ‘The worst thing about sleeping rough was being discovered and being sent out into the street, not having somewhere

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to go especially if it’s cold and raining. The worst is not knowing where to go, not knowing where to keep one’s purse and what clothes you have.’ ‘I have been homeless for 16 years and lived in shelters and outside. In the beginning I had no help and for six years lived in tents, caravans and shelters with my partner. There are no shelters or anything available for couples to live in – especially those who have a drug problem. I have lived in cellars and attics and in almost every ‘bush in town’. The worst thing about sleeping rough was the cold. I had a fear that someone would come to the tent and kill me. I never became involved in sex work – I kept stones close to hand in case kerb crawlers in cars drove past asking about sex and I would throw the stones at the cars.’

Narrative Women’s stories of life on the street demonstrated characteristics that appeared to us – from previous research and literature that we had encountered – to be significantly different to the male experiences of street life. Women reported having few places to go where they could feel safe; most were afraid the majority of the time and had used a variety of different places to shelter including cellars, attics, bushes, caravans, tents and the woods. Many women remained awake in public places during the night where they felt safer, and slept during the day. Women in all the samples said they had suffered psychologically from the trauma of sleeping on the street; many also because they were separated from their children. Keeping clean and staying warm were major difficulties. Many reported eating from dustbins. Your health: UK women ‘I was sectioned a few times but now I’ve learnt not to volunteer myself into the mental health sector do you know what I mean…so I’ve not been in there again now and they have segregated…they’ve got a men’s section and a women’s section but when I was in **** [hospital] before it was a mixed ward…so obviously the guys were in there with the girls…you go to **** Hospital now and the men are here and the women are here so there’s no mingling.’

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‘Yeah I think my health suffered bad. It’s lonely but to be honest what I did is when I was homeless I just go to the drug houses ’cos all you got to do is earn money and you can stay in there all night then as long as you are smoking and buying drugs. So that was easy for me to just stay in the crackers all night but with some crack and some gear and then I got somewhere to stay for the night and then I can go to sleep in the day time.’ ‘Even now I still suffer from depression because of the problems with the sleeping rough led me to all that sexual abuse and stuff and then self-harm and other stuff like that that I’ve had as well…but down to other general health my general health would be fine but…I moved onto drug abuse and when I was 14 which is ridiculous…and that obviously hasn’t help my physical state…so I’ve damaged myself really.’ Your health: Hungarian women ‘I thought that I would commit suicide and kill my child as well.’ ‘I am declared unable to work on the basis of my schizophrenia, I have to take medicine regularly, I have to get an injection every 14 days. It began after the death of my husband in 2003.’ ‘I have had a lot of trouble. Three years ago I weighed 92 kg. My partner died together with my 16-year-old son. Then I lost my two-year-old grandchild. At the end I weighed 162 kg! I was really low at that point mentally.’ ‘I have got a common-law partner for 12 years. His leg was amputated one and a half years ago as a consequence of living on the street – it happened after his leg froze. I am declared partially disabled so I cannot work. It is really hard to find work in this situation.’ Your health: Spanish women ‘I take refuge in drugs.’

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‘I’m depressed, I feel very weepy, cry a lot, I’m very depressed, I remember my son and I mourn, listen to music or something and I collapse. All I have is depression… nothing else.’ ‘He started throwing ashtrays, plates, at me and the children plundering everything and all I did was grab the car keys and hop into the car. I went to the doctor because my daughter had an anxiety attack and could not speak and could not do anything and I looked so bad that I went to the clinic. When the doctor saw what happened to my daughter he called the police.’ ‘Following the beatings I drank excessive amounts from morning to night. I have been here for three months without drinking anything. They are helping me a lot, I’m also going to a drug centre because I’ve been a consumer of cocaine and now I’m clean of everything and I hope to continue and that is due to being here really.’ ‘Psychologically I was destroyed. At first you think you are good for nothing. You are crap, all men like this tell you. But I am not crap, or worthless, on the contrary I have met a guy who tells me how pretty I am, which makes me super happy.’ Your health: Swedish women ‘Depressed at times, very stressful, kidneys are catastrophic. Sometimes I forget to eat for a few days…I have been to hospital for a kidney infection, which is quite painful. I suffer from anxiety, jaundice, back pain, I feel like just hanging by a thread. It is terrible.’ ‘I did not start taking drugs until I was 22 years of age. I started drinking from the age of 18. I suffer from back problems from violence suffered. Overall my health is average. Teeth are pretty bad. I have kidney stones and suffer from anxiety but have no access to treatment for this or to a counsellor either. I tried making contact with the Malmö drug treatment services but nothing came of this. I was able to get a place in a shelter and access to money

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from welfare office. I asked for help from social services and welfare but they did not even ask me what my needs were.’ ‘My health is a disaster. I started smoking when I was six or seven years old. I have asthma, I have emphysema, low confidence and feel depressed all the time, I feel ugly, emotionally drained and “feel like nothing”. I have low self-esteem, feel insecure and precarious. I do not trust people anymore. My health is average. A while back I had a mental collapse and suffered stomach cramps.’ ‘I have Hepatitis C. It will be worse when you do not have housing, it is easier perhaps to encounter infections/ bacteria…it is not the same cleanliness the same way if you have your house. I have been admitted to hospital with this infection.’

Narrative Women in all the samples reported experiencing mental health problems ranging from “feeling low”, anxiety and depression to serious multiple mental health conditions including schizophrenia. Many women had health problems as a result of drug or alcohol misuse and also to the effects of long-term rough sleeping and exposure to the cold such as feet, leg and back problems and severe problems with their teeth. Some women had continuing health issues relating to the violence they had suffered.

Access to services: UK women ‘**** didn’t help me at all…They turned round to me and they said I hadn’t got mental health issues and I’m not depressed. I mean my sister she was a drug addict and she’s been evicted for prostitution and they wouldn’t help her…I mean somebody was pimping around and she was trying to get away from it and they weren’t helping her…I mean she’d been raped two nights in a row by two different gangs of guys and they still weren’t helping her…in the end it was **** City Council that she had to go to get up here…all **** did they chucked us in a dorm and forgot about us to be honest and ever since…my sister is 21 and now back on drugs.’

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‘If they built a few more [hostels just for women]…they’d actually realise how many women need accommodation cause there are a good few out there that need it. Cause you get the ones where you have to like…they’ll only house you if you got kids or pregnant.’ ‘The only time you get access to anything is when you get into trouble…like when I was like living on the streets I was in Taunton and I was with this bird Pippa right and we had nowhere to stay and were living on streets that I done something really mental so the police were after me and all this lot. And in the end I had to hand myself into the police but before that because we had no money or nothing they wouldn’t kill yourself sleeping or anything even though it’s girls on the street you know what I mean…and they don’t give a shit the old bill anyway.’ ‘My parents are in India and they can’t help me because they are so far away. They did say come back to India but I don’t want to go back and I want to stay here in UK. I have no family in UK and through the Gurdwara have started to make friends with ladies who go there. If a woman is separated from her husband then in India she has little value and no one cares about her. Respect in India is everything and a woman must not lose her respect.’ Access to services: Hungarian women ‘I was 14 when I was raped by four men. I used to have long hair; they tried to strangle me with it. They beat me up so bad my face was all smashed up. The professor in hospital sat on my bed in the hospital and asked if I wanted to have children. I told him of course I wanted kids. All women want children that is why we are women. He looked at me and said you cannot ever have kids, we had to remove your insides…I had been cut up. These men stuck a stick inside me. I don’t know how I survived…I had been tortured… don’t know how I endured. I received no help to deal with this afterwards. Anytime I saw a man I shrank. I came to the homeless shelter. I slept rough sometimes. When I drank more than could be accepted they sent me away from the

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shelter. I do not drink for the taste, but because I cannot handle the situation.’ ‘I have been homeless all my life. Since 1978 I worked for more than 15 years sweeping the streets. I have not worked for some time. They see that I am homeless, that I sleep in a shelter and they do not give me the job. I do not have any income at all, no benefits, no nothing. I dig through the garbage. I come to the shelter for the night. Many times I do not eat anything. I simply did not eat anything at all, not even a bit of bread for days.’ ‘I solve my problems myself. I have made a big mistake – a human mistake – I trust people.’ ‘I did not get any help no matter where I applied. So went from one sublet to the other. I gave my daughter to the childcare. The local government try to oppress the people, literally, so that they have to pay less and less money.’ Access to services: Spanish women ‘I have had help from **** and **** they have helped me a lot. I have no complaints at all. Women are not protected at all and there is no law. And there is a lot of crime, drugs, alcohol, I do not know where it will end.’ [Do you have someone you can talk to about everything that has happened?] ‘Yes, my dog.’ ‘I think there should be women only services because I think single women should have somewhere or a dedicated facility for single women or children. They should be in a place where they can eat, have dinner, breakfast and showering alone. They need not be in an area with men who do not know anything. Especially if you have been mistreated – you should be in a special place.’ ‘We shower at ****. It is better than other hostels because you have a washing machine. I need you to give me a house, to have my children come first. First have a home and have my six children with me.’

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‘Access to services is not so good. You need more information because I believe that there are still women like me who do not know that it exists. For example in the villages.’ ‘When I arrived at the emergency centre, everything was great, the treatment and everything. And the second time it happened the social workers were accustomed to me and I was to live in the house.’ ‘I’ve been here almost four months and I’m fine, I’m very happy with both the team’s assistant, psychologist, lawyer, because they help me a lot. I have five children and they are here. The oldest is 11, another 10, seven, four and small one who is 13 months.’ Access to services: Swedish women ‘It needs to be recognised that there are many women who are homeless, all the social agencies recognise that there are plenty of services for men but very few exist for women and much more accommodation is needed – more places are needed for women.’ ‘Men have more services available to them than women. It’s important that there is accommodation for abused women. Each and every person should be able to get the support and assistance they need. Services where there are male and female staff (and not just female staff) and services are customised to the needs of that person and take into account different religions/cultures. It can be daunting to put people from different cultures with people who have suffered different forms of abuse. You should not put drug free people with drug addicts in the same accommodation. You need more variety of services to fit different people’s needs.’ ‘More help is needed from the district administration for women to maintain their own housing. For single women without children there is not much help available and issues not taken seriously. If you had children there would be different forms of help and duty of responsibility available.

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Currently I am not treated as priority and I feel neglected. There are many women who do not know where to go or who to turn to so there needs to be more advertising of services and more information.’ ‘I have not received or been offered any kind of support or help in all the 16 years I have been homeless.’ ‘Coming to the shelter has given me time to think. The staff at the shelter have taken me seriously and I feel I can talk to them about anything and they have helped calm me. The activities have helped me find a way out of both violence and homelessness.’ ‘There should be women only services. There are a huge mix of people all with different problems. Need more apartments. What is difficult it that there are so many people at the shelter all with different needs. I find it difficult to express myself to the authorities and ask for help. It would be good to have support from someone who can go to meetings with me.’

Narrative Although there were some positive responses from women in our sample about the help they had received and access to services, the majority of women reported feeling negative about their experiences with agencies for a number of reasons. A number of women felt they, and their situation were not taken seriously by agencies; some had not been allowed access to services if they had drug or alcohol problems. Women said that they felt that there were not enough women only hostels and that there should be far more since most women did not want to be in a mixed hostel with men. Another point raised was that a single woman with no children had very few options since priority was given to those women with children. Women felt that they had no one to talk to, and staff in agencies did not have the time to listen to their story. They also felt that they only got attention if they did something wrong or got into trouble with the police; a number reported purposefully getting caught for shoplifting either to draw attention to their plight or to get a bed in police cells for the night. In Hungary, where there is an absence of social assistance and homelessness

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is currently criminalised, women suffered particular problems including starvation or eating from bins. General issues: UK women ‘You need to get the word out there as well and show them that there is help out there…help available for the women. I mean there is a big homeless problem for men and women but women are more vulnerable. It’s more dangerous for a woman sleeping on their own. The other day in Birmingham a homeless man got beat to death with a house brick by a gang of youths or something…while he was asleep. What about if that had been a woman? They probably would have done other things to her as well.’ ‘I want to do some work…I want to do something for somebody else…my head works 100 miles an hour and everybody says I’m good at like leading and things like that…this is what I keep holding me back I keep just like ’cos you still got it in your own head even though you are 44…I got abused by my dad, my granddad and my uncle and mom used to beat the crap out of me so it was always there…get married or stay in that situation what would you do? We got to try and stop that, there’s got to be a way of stopping that before it gets that far.’ ‘Most people are out there ’cos they’ve been abused, they’ve got to stop it earlier.’ ‘I think there should be more information and awareness about women rough sleepers and what help and support is available…especially in ethnic minority communities. In some communities girls still have it very hard with strict and controlling families. I think there should be information in schools and colleges for young people about what support is available so no one has to sleep rough.’ General issues: Hungarian women ‘I want to get a job, so I can move to the hostel where you have to pay for a room. Eventually I could rent an apartment or a bedroom. I hope to get a job and be able to move on.’

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‘I do not want to stay in this country. I hate it here. I would rather be homeless abroad. I would rather die.’ ‘I do not know what will happen. I have no plans. I am afraid of myself. I might commit suicide. I cannot live on. My life has no meaning. I go to the shelter at night, I have to leave it by 7.30 am. I spend the day outside. I am homeless. I can go and look through garbage bins. Then I come back to line up for the shelter. I take a shower. I wash my clothes. This is not what you call life. I have never had a life. Never. I had cut my wrists. I cannot take it any longer that I have to live like this. Being homeless, not having anyone to talk to. There are homeless people in this shelter who have university degrees, who used to be teachers.’ ‘I do not know what I will do in the future. I have not thought about that yet. And I cannot do anything while being homeless. No one would employ me, I am not healthy.’ General issues: Spanish women ‘When a woman speaks and says I am abused, that is it, you cannot judge a woman when she says she has been abused, I think we need help and support.’ ‘I know at least four women with pets and we often cannot do anything. Although there are many times we go to a place, we cannot take him anywhere to sleep. I’ve said many times, there are so many empty houses, that should be available to someone with a pet. You cannot take a woman who has left some abuse and has picked up a friendship with a dog, hamster, cat, whatever it is, you cannot take that away. It is also an abuse, in a way, because just this animal can bring happiness to the person.’ ‘Abused women are still ignored. When a woman speaks and says I am abused, we must help and support. There are cases and cases but only the person who is being abused knows about it.’

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‘A wish? Well to find a man who will treat me and my children better and I have a job and a house, so as not to be dependent on him.’ General issues: Swedish women ‘To avoid women’s homelessness you need a place where women can come and think for a bit and decide what to do about their situation and have someone to talk to.’ ‘I want to get clean (from drugs) and get my own apartment where I can feel safe and secure, have peace and quiet. I would like to make contact with my children.’ ‘Expectations for the future are to have my own accommodation (not a shared room with someone else), be able to close my own door, get food and be cared for. Society has become tough and a difficult climate.’ ‘My expectations for the future are to get out of the shelter as soon as possible, get my own place to stay, take home my cats and move out of Malmö. There are empty places available so why should people be forced to sleep outside when places are not full.’ ‘My aspiration for the future is to have my own apartment as I want to live alone. I wants to live only with my dog and to move far away from Malmö.’ ‘I want to be drug free, employed and keep the apartment.’

Narrative Within this theme of the analysis women were asked more generally about what their hopes for the future were, what they thought could be done to stop women sleeping rough and if there was anything else they specifically wanted to add that the interview had not covered. On the whole women felt that there should be more information available to inform women about the help and assistance that is potentially available to help them. Many women expressed a real desire to work, to do something constructive and in many cases, to help others who were in similar situations to theirs; also to be able to have their own

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apartment, where they could shut the door behind them and feel safe. They also felt that awareness raising and the education of boys and girls should take place to ensure that domestic abuse does not occur so frequently, since the majority said their own homelessness came about as a direct result of this social problem. Above all, women expressed a desire for their problems to be taken seriously and not to be ignored. In the following chapter the same thematic analysis is carried out in relation to the interviews conducted with service providers and other agencies working with homeless women.

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FIVE

Analysing and understanding the problem: service providers’ stories We established in Chapter Four that ethnographic interviewing is a type of qualitative research that combines immersive observation and either structured or semi-structured face-to-face interviews. This method of interviewing is a form of contextual inquiry that is useful in gathering qualitative data about the individuals whom you have targeted in your study. This was an ideal method for us to collect the type of data we wanted from both women rough sleepers themselves and from the organisations that worked with them. In all cases, we accessed organisations at their own place of work. In this way we were able to carry out the interviews in a setting that was more natural and familiar for service providers. This kind of observation, which takes place within a normal environment can thus uncover important details to the interviewer concerning the attitudes and behaviours of those being interviewed. Clearly, issues of access and willingness to participate in the study, made this quite difficult to achieve and it is testament to the perseverance of the interviewers that so many were successfully carried out. This also would not have been possible if it had not been for the huge support received by the researchers, from service providers and other agencies. We accessed service providers from the West Midlands to start with but then went further afield through agencies that we knew. Our partners did the same in their own countries. The samples were entirely random in this sense. Within this chapter figures and statistics are not given, since the purpose of this chapter is provide the reader with a sense of the rich qualitative data that was collected and how that data was analytically themed. Chapter Six will provide the quantitative data, however, before this – and to elucidate the sensitive life stories in each of these interviews – we want to demonstrate how each transcript was analysed by reducing it into the following themed headings.

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Knowledge Within this theme, we include the data we collected from service providers about the characteristics of their service users; any training that they had received specifically in relation to women rough sleepers or their experiences of violence; their knowledge of the extent of the problem of women rough sleepers, the services that were available and any gaps they could identify in services; and, finally, their knowledge of legislation, policies and professional guidelines. Delivery Within this theme we report on the data that we gathered from service providers in relation to the existence of multi-agency working; preventative measures; local strategies; and examples of good practice. Impact Within this theme the data gathered relates to why women rough sleepers might be falling through the social safety net; what factors SP felt might bring women rough sleepers back into mainstream society; any operational and policy changes they would like to see; and, finally, any general issues that they wished to raise that the interview had not covered. As with the previous chapter where we reported on the qualitative data from our interviews with women rough sleepers, within this chapter we present the findings of the interviews with service providers conveyed to us through the qualitative interviews within the themes above. Again, these narratives are rich and intense in nature and it is crucial to get a flavour of what service providers told us during the course of this research in order to subsequently understand the context and human nature of the subsequent overview of this analysis which appears in Chapter Seven. Within each theme we take examples from each country to provide the reader with some sense of comparison and a narrative is provided for each section summarising the themes.

Service provider organisations UK organisations Within the UK we undertook interviews with 29 people across 20 service organisations or agencies that provide rough sleeping or

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homelessness services. The types of agencies that were interviewed included local councils, non-governmental organisations, the police, and the fire service, charities and voluntary and community sector organisations. ‘My job is to prevent arson specifically in buildings that are not dwellings. My focus is the buildings that are void and derelict. Not only do we find void and derelict buildings but the local crews who turn out to the fires in these buildings need to know what danger they gonna find inside…so I walk the insides and as a result I regularly come across signs of and evidence of rough sleeping and drug use.’ ‘We provide just over 10,000 council properties…so obviously the housing service or housing management… and also legislation requiring us to provide a service to homeless households.’ ‘I manage services male and female, semi-independent accommodation, fully supported male and female accommodation. Age group 16 to 25 year olds.’ ‘The role of my agency is to support customers who do sleep rough or who are at risk of rough sleeping. We got a rough sleepers’ team that is dealing with the customers who are roofless and on the street.’ Hungarian organisations Organisations interviewed in Hungary included night shelters, hostels, special crisis centres and women’s temporary shelters. The majority of people interviewed had a social work background and had been educated in social work. These people were working on the ‘front line’ of their organisations with clients and offered a range of services including accommodation, outreach work, counselling and groups for abused women. ‘I work at the women’s temporary shelter, where it is my job during the first few appointments to get to know what problems my clients have, and start to find solutions. This is where the process comes to a halt, since there are really

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no opportunities. Our role is constantly changing based on how the government relates to helping the poor and needy.’ ‘This is a hostel. People who stay here have to pay 9,600 HUF every month for their accommodation. They do not have to pay the first month, but from the second month. So many would stay here for two months and then leave.’ ‘We are a night shelter, so we mostly provide basic services: showers, laundry. We do not ask for any official document from the women who spend the night here, we ask for their name only. We give them medicine if needed, without registering their health insurance, or checking for their legal address.’ ‘Services? She gets, let’s say, a bed, toilet paper, shower cream and supper in the winter (but you must not think of a big three-course dinner but rather bread with butter, or fat, or cheese, or ham, jam and tea)…And that is all, really. There is a physician, a psychiatrist, and dentist as well. Lung screening is a requirement.’ Spanish organisations A range of service providers were interviewed in Spain which included psychologists, social workers, the head of the homeless and social exclusion bureau in Seville, professionals working in hostels, shelters and foster homes and the Deputy Mayor of Malaga. ‘We are a centre for homeless people in general and for women who are on the street. They are met by our services, we try to give comprehensive care among the entire group of women who come to us because they are in an abusive situation.’ ‘My role is that I’m the director of the shelter of Seville. I manage the emergency appeal of Seville, the shelter and we have four supervised apartments.’ ‘Our centre takes in women victims who report their husbands and have no resources.’

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Swedish organisations A range of service providers were interviewed in Sweden, which included social workers, professionals working for statutory authorities, hostels, shelters and foster homes and psychologists. ‘I am a social worker. I work in the “Hub” which provides drug-assisted therapy. It is for women who have a long or at least one year documented heroin addiction. They receive their medication and talk with the nurses but we as social workers provide psychosocial treatment.’ ‘We have women from age of anything from 20 to 50+. Thirty women currently use our service – this is our capacity.’ ‘I’m employed as a social worker. Main role is outreach work on the street with prostitutes, mostly women or almost exclusively with women. Two nights a week I’m out on the street so I’m working half night and half day. And during the day I meet women in prostitution and I have treatment for such women. You see therefore women prostituting themselves.’ ‘We are working with the homeless, abused women, everything relating to adults. We receive applications in relation to homeless women and try to find some sort of temporary housing for them. My role is I receive applications.’

Knowledge As we said earlier, within this first of our three themes, we asked service providers about the characteristics of their service users; training that they had received specifically in relation to women rough sleepers or their experiences of violence; knowledge of the extent of the problem of women rough sleepers; the services available and any gaps they could identify in services; and their knowledge of legislation, policies and professional guidelines.

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Knowledge: characteristics of UK women rough sleepers The service providers interviewed in this sample said that they had not worked with any women who had children with them – they had usually given them up already into care or foster care. Their clients presented with problems of substance, alcohol abuse, relationship breakdown; mental health problems and were suspicious of authority or ‘officialdom’. ‘Typically very well groomed, very tidy…which is probably how they keep it hidden – that’s a pride thing undoubtedly. But yeah I would say drug and alcohol and with that probably mental health issues as well.’ ‘It’s possible that young women particularly when it’s very cold deliberately get arrested (for shop lifting) so that they can get into the [police] cells because it would be a roof over their head so they’ve instigated the criminal activity in order to survive. ‘There are all classes, all levels of education, all levels of intelligence, addiction, non-addiction and it’s the same for the women as it is for the men.’ ‘We’ve got quite a high proportion of young people that have been looked after so around 20 per cent to 23 per cent have had some experience of the care system. Similarly around young people and [the] criminal justice system.’ ‘The women that we come across they tend to have multiple support needs which would be possibly mental health, drug and alcohol dependency and being excluded from many services, thus they are now sleeping rough on the streets.’ Knowledge: characteristics of Hungarian women rough sleepers The service providers interviewed in this sample reported that all the women they saw were very different. Some had college degrees and others only elementary education, some could be helped, others not. They described them as chaotic, unable to follow rules, mistrustful, victims of abuse, fearful, having problems with alcohol, and mental health issues, hard to reach, lonely and not aware who can help them.

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‘Some women have been coming here for 10 years; they have lost all hope of ever changing their lives. Many do not trust homeless or other services. Some women come to us with only a bag of their belongings, fleeing an abusive husband that they had reported to the police several times, with no avail. They have lost hope that anyone would help, so they rather choose to become homeless.’ ‘They do have problems with keeping the rules. They get into conflicts with each other, with their partners. Sometimes we have to confiscate alcohol.’ ‘Many rough sleepers are afraid to use services. They might not have a personal bad impression and through word of mouth this is spread to other rough sleepers.’ ‘They do not have a support system: they might have grown up in state care, or they do not have a tight enough family that would support them emotionally. Some of them need to talk to someone for two or three hours a day, because they are so lonely.’ ‘I think women who use the shelters are usually in a worse state than those men using similar services.’ Knowledge: characteristics of Spanish women rough sleepers Service providers within the Spanish sample said that the characteristics of rough sleeping women with whom they came into contact included those with mental illness, including educational difficulties, women who had suffered from abuse, were dependent on men both emotionally and financially, drug users, those with immigration problems, women from dysfunctional families, and those with extreme low self-esteem, depression and anxiety. ‘There is a large percentage of mental illness. There is another profile I have seen a lot, that is “oligofrénicas” women [with learning difficulties] – too many and more than men.’ ‘Usually they are women who have had some sort of abuse and we are seeing more younger girls with unwanted

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pregnancies, who are at increased risk of becoming victims of domestic violence with addiction problems such as drugs and alcohol.’ ‘The profile is highly variable, there are thousands of different profiles. The most common is drug use, mental health problems, domestic violence and immigration.’ ‘You usually see those presenting with helplessness, low self-esteem, symptoms of depression, anxiety, sleep disorders and post-traumatic stress; they always have nightmares, reexperiencing the situations they have experienced. That is the most common.’ Knowledge: characteristics of Swedish women rough sleepers The service providers in this sample reported that homeless women presented most often with problems of addiction, domestic abuse, lack of self-esteem, vulnerability, at risk of eviction or having been evicted, mistrustful of authority, having problem of immigration, involved in prostitution and living unstable, chaotic lives. ‘Often relationship problems or substance abuse problems and it need not be self-abuse problems or domestic problems. It may have been in the family, while growing up.’ ‘Women who have an immigrant background and have been threatened and abused in the home, and left the man.’ ‘Mental illness is very common among girls because they had to leave their families or have been through some form of violence, traumatic experiences, self-medicates, moderate anxiety.’ ‘Long-term addiction, not worked, lived in dysfunctional relationships many times, difficult childhood. They do not have many friends who are completely drug-free.’ ‘Homeless women have experiences of rape but they report that rarely.’

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Knowledge: training specific to women rough sleepers Very few of the service providers working with women rough sleepers who had suffered domestic abuse had received training specific to this. However, many had undertaken training in domestic abuse and most felt more specific training would be valuable. A common feature among providers was that they said that they ‘learnt on the job or from experience’. In Sweden none of the organisations interviewed had any form of training or education in relation to the issues of women rough sleepers or were aware of any such training in existence. Very few organisations had any form of training or education in relation to violence against women. What the UK service providers said ‘Not specifically around that in that my background from support work in hostels previously. I have had training courses around domestic violence and “You sort of pick it up as you go along.”’ ‘No…I’m not aware that any of our staff have had training on that. I’ve had some training on domestic violence issues…so I’m aware of [the] kind of the needs of women when they’re coming in here, but in terms of rough sleeping I haven’t had training – no.’ ‘Not specifically to women rough sleepers…we do have domestic violence training. All new staff have to go through several mandatory training courses and one of those is in relation to domestic abuse. I myself have been on a lot of conferences, training around rough sleeping and homelessness in general. None of them focused specifically on women rough sleepers.’ ‘It’s on the job training. We got no money so we don’t do training.’ What the Hungarian service providers said ‘Our staff do not receive any training about abuse, or about the legal possibilities of helping someone who has been

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abused. They might have learnt something in college or at university. Most of us learn by practice.’ ‘I have never participated in any such training. I do not even think this exists.’ ‘Social workers tend to learn from each other. Most students who I meet who go through formal training are not enthusiastic about homeless people and homeless services. They do not know how to talk to homeless people, they are afraid of them.’ ‘We encourage every member of our staff to take part in trainings. We have limited funding that we can spend on training.’ ‘Yes, at university, but I would not mind if there were further trainings to keep us up to date in order to do our job more efficiently and more investments in trainings about the topic.’ What the Spanish service providers said ‘No, experience is what gave me the little training I may have in this area, but I have not received any specific training.’ ‘I have received gender violence and homelessness training but nothing specific to women victims of gender violence, no. And I want to emphasize one thing, within the area of the City of Sevilla, there is no homeless training for technicians and techniques that work with homeless people, that is a question that I have already asked.’ ‘Well it would take a lot of specific training on addressing gender-based violence, in addressing issues such as prostitution, in addressing issues of sexual assault, because they are all complex issues and very sensitive. A public institution, the same company should provide you with the training or at least that possibility.

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‘We have experience, I am a social worker and other staff all came here trained. I’ve done some courses – psychology – and I ended up doing a masters in clinical psychology. I have attended a conference about violence.’ What the Swedish service providers said ‘I have not got any training on homelessness. Violence, yes.’ ‘Had no training. There is no training with the audiences we cater for, the mentally ill, domestic violence, abuse, training in how to respond to women, little current research on the area itself, cultural differences, honour-related violence, so you get a greater insight into what is the problem. And training to respond to these women in a proper manner, to learn what types of accommodation and organisations the city of Malmö offers so that you feel you have enough information to respond to this group. And I feel that we do not have.’ ‘We would need to know more about cultures. I have just finished a course called “Married against their will”…and I feel that we need to probably find out some more and see that it’s just not religion but it’s sex, culture – all that’s interwoven. The training given to me has not given me so much practical knowledge.’

Knowledge: the extent of the problem of women rough sleepers who have experienced domestic abuse On the whole, whether partner countries undertook formal counts, the knowledge of the extent of women sleeping rough was patchy. Providers all commented on the invisibility of women’s rough sleeping contributing to the difficulty in gauging the true extent. Most felt that the problem was bigger than anyone anticipated. UK service providers could comment on the numbers of women that they dealt with specifically. In Hungary in particular very little was known about the true extent of the problem. In Spain, assessing the extent of the problem appeared to be based on guesswork. In Sweden service providers had some local knowledge but most agreed that the true extent was unknown.

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What the UK service providers said ‘We currently have 14 rough sleepers which is a bit of a shock to me because last time we only had about five.’ ‘We’ve got 20 females in the last 12 months that’s sleeping rough/sofa surfing…it’s quite a big figure but not in comparison to the amount of males.’ ‘We have noticed a massive increase in women. But on the back of that we’ve been doing a project working streets at night with the sex workers and as trust has built the girls are now starting to come here.’ ‘My view of the women is that they are very much hidden. And I do believe that because we’ve spend such a lot of time on the streets, because we’ve spent such a lot of time into building trust that the girls are trusting us and they are coming out and they are sharing stuff with us now and I think that’s because of the hard work of the team. Women think that this is a place of safety and that’s the difference.’ ‘We’ve definitely seen an increase in women coming through as homeless, but they’re not street homeless they are sofa surfing so, yeah, we do have a quite a big problem with women of all ages actually sofa surfing.’ What the Hungarian service providers said ‘There are all kinds of women who come to our shelter. There are only a few young women, many of whom come from state care. We have a lot of elderly women.’ ‘We have had at least 15 newcomers lately. Last winter we tried to focus on rough sleepers, and some regular users have come back. We have a full house, which is unusual for the summer or spring. There are more and more people whose families break up.’

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What the Spanish service providers said ‘Maybe it is 10 per cent, 15 per cent [of the total homeless population], I do not know but I’m imagining.’ ‘I do not have any statistics; there are more men than women.’ ‘Roughly 20 to 24 per cent.’ What the Swedish service providers said ‘It would be “pretty hard to say” how many women are homeless in Malmö. There are no statistics that we have seen or know about…maybe 50, I do not know.’ ‘No figure at all. It is a common problem among our women. It may well be 25 per cent.’ ‘I think that’s difficult. I have seen 20 per cent of homeless women in the drug group. At the same time I have no proof of it…it feels like there are not very many.’ ‘No…it is a really difficult question of who is homeless. In my organisation could have met over 150+ women.’ ‘Some women may not be visible because they have obtained temporary housing with a man, possibly in exchange for sexual favours.’

Knowledge: services available for women rough sleepers Generally speaking, all service providers commented that there were either no or not enough services specific to women. In the UK providers commented that services were mostly generic with a few exceptions and there was a distinct lack of crisis or emergency accommodation for women. In Hungary all shelters are for both men and women and providers commented that here the problem is that there is a cultural acceptance of domestic violence as normal so little motivation at any level to do anything about it. The cost of shelters in Hungary for many women is prohibitive. In Spain there was evidence of shelters specifically for women but providers said that there was

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little emergency accommodation. In Sweden there were women only shelters but not enough. Service providers commented that there were gaps in providing services for women with addictions and that ‘halfway houses’ would be a good addition to services. What the UK service providers said ‘There isn’t really a provision for women that sleep rough. There isn’t any specialist agency.’ ‘Services specifically for women – well, there aren’t any. The majority of services that they can access are the same as the males.’ ‘I’m not aware of anything specific. I don’t think there’s been anything identified specifically in our local homeless strategy. I think rough sleepers are kind of treated as a whole and not necessarily looking at women’s needs specifically, which I’m guessing there is a gap with that, yeah.’ ‘I think the biggest gap is for emergency accommodation. We’ve got lots of schemes that we can get people into but there’s a waiting list.’ ‘There is limited direct access accommodation for women. I think there’re only six bed spaces so it’s a kind of limited resource.’ ‘Well, accommodation is a service gap…I mean we provide services here, but obviously women have different support needs and different experiences…again it comes down to training and prior knowledge really.’ ‘They are mixed generally. There are a few specific ones such as women only sessions.’ What the Hungarian service providers said ‘Night shelters are available for women rough sleepers. But these are few and places are severely limited and on a first come first serve basis in many respects.’

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‘There are very few services for women rough sleepers who have suffered abuse and violence and women accept that it is a way of life to suffer domestic violence. I found out that women in their 50s and 60s think it’s something that goes together with marriage.’ ‘Many people live with their buddies, maybe not in an apartment, but in an abandoned building or warehouse. I can understand their choice: they have their own mattress, they can put a lock on the door and leave their things there in safety during the day. Here, in our shelter, 40 people sleep together. I might opt for the abandoned warehouse as well!’ ‘Hostels charge a fee to stay which women rough sleepers cannot afford.’ ‘There are far fewer places for homeless women. There are not enough places for homeless couples. We do not know how to offer solutions for people fleeing or living in violence.’ ‘It would be good to have a special night shelter for abused women where they would get help.’ What the Spanish service providers said ‘Well I think that there are shelters or specific houses for homeless women victims of gender violence. I know of two centres in Seville with a few specific places.’ ‘For resources that provide information, counselling, legal support there is a lot. But for crisis, or emergency accommodation we are very deficient.’ ‘Ignorance, I think the teams do not have gender training, that’s what I would say is lacking in our services.’ ‘There needs to be more information points for the women.’

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What the Swedish service providers said ‘In Malmö there is controlled housing. Social services have the apartments they offer, training flats. Controlled housing is a form of living. They work all right for those women. It works perfectly fine but there are not enough.’ ‘A halfway house for these women would be great. It is missing. Some services only allow specific types of women target groups to access their services. Need more places to accommodate homeless girls. Women’s shelters are nearly always full.’ ‘I read a couple of days ago in the paper that they had to deny many applicants for Malmö shelters. And then I do not know if the municipality has something else to offer than shelters or foster homes or something like that when there is an emergency.’ ‘Usually get offered shelters, training apartment, foster care.’ ‘There is a need for different types and alternative accommodation especially for women who have an addiction. It is easy for a woman to relapse into addiction and cannot handle their treatment during the time she loses her home.’

Knowledge: legislation and policies specific to women rough sleepers In the UK interview participants were not aware of any existing legislation or other policies that were specific to women rough sleepers. Anything to do with women rough sleepers is not gender specific but generalised under ‘rough sleeping’ within existing legislation and policies. In Hungary the political and social situation that currently criminalises homelessness makes things very difficult indeed for service providers working in this environment. Consequently there are also knock-on effects in terms of people’s access to shelters, which the providers mention in the quotations below. In Spain there were no laws specific to homelessness but providers mentioned equality, gender and domestic abuse legislation. In Sweden no organisation interviewed was able to state with any degree of confidence that they were aware

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of any existing legislation or other policies that are specific to women rough sleepers. What they were able to state was the need to retain confidentiality when dealing with clients; that women rough sleepers have a right to care ‘within a certain time and stuff’; the ultimate responsibility of each municipality is to ensure that they have a decent life.’ What the UK service providers said ‘Current government policy and initiatives including ‘No Second Night Out’ do not include anything specific relating to women rough sleepers.’ ‘I have to say I don’t really know anything specific to women. It’s generic, isn’t it.’ ‘I am not aware of any specific policies or procedures or anything.’ What the Hungarian service providers said About the legal framework: ‘I do not think it is a sufficient system. Rough sleeping is punishable by law, but this does not motivate people to make a change in their lives. It motivates them to become invisible. Social services should be more flexible. There are a few safe houses for abused women, but I do not think they are enough. I am not sure how efficient they are, I only work within the homeless sector. I think the Social Bill needs to be changed: I would remove the ladder-system from the homeless services.’ ‘There is a huge political pressure (not articulated though) not to let people back to live in the streets.’ ‘There is a constant fight to make domestic violence a separate issue, as it is in Western European countries. But still, I think the greatest problem is within Hungarian minds, that it is either thought to be normal or something that should not be discussed.’ ‘Banning homeless people from public spaces will not bring any solutions. It would only be good if we could offer

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real solutions to people. But we have several women with psychiatric issues who are screaming in different voices at 2 am in our shelter – I do not think they belong on the streets.’ ‘There is the issue of legal address. In Hungary people need to have an ID card with their legal address. People with no permanent address cannot have a temporary one either. When this new interpretation came into force, 39,000 individuals – homeless men and women – were threatened. For example, a woman who is 11 weeks pregnant (the last week to make such a choice) can choose to have an abortion free of charge – if she has a permanent legal address. If she does not, she has to pay 37,000 HUF for it – obviously out of the reach of most homeless women!’ ‘I am not too confident about the legal framework regarding abuse.’ ‘I am not aware of legislation regarding abuse, there should be one about domestic violence.’ ‘The law does not protect the abused. We are not helped by the law. We have to fight to keep a husband away from his wife who lives here and stop him from abusing her. In the greater picture we only see that the laws that are made do not help our work.’ What the Spanish service providers said ‘No, I know of no law that is specific to…homeless women or women who are the victims of violence. I do not know if any [laws] exist.’ ‘The Equality Act…this is important, you cannot under any circumstances remove this legal tool, but that is only a patch.’ ‘The law of gender violence is what we rely on specifically.’ ‘The law of domestic violence specifically and this applies across Andalusia.’

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What the Swedish service providers said ‘There are no national guidelines about homelessness.’ ‘Really only the Social Services Act. For violence I feel I do not know specifically what laws there are.’ ‘I feel there are large gaps in the protection needs of these women.’ ‘You have to get better at telling women their rights in Sweden…because it’s very many I meet who actually think that, “He hit me just a little bit so it’s probably pretty okay though.” You need firmer laws. There are some shortcomings in the legislation.’ ‘I cannot say that we have some special legislation in favour of just homeless women. [There is the] Social Services Act ensuring the individual’s living conditions.’

Delivery The next theme is that of ‘delivery’ where we asked interview participants about their experience of multi-agency working; knowledge of preventative measures and local strategies; and also examples of good practice.

Evidence of local strategies In the UK providers said that in the main strategies tended to be generic although our research overall demonstrated that some providers offered women specific training within a mixed hostel. In Hungary there were no specific strategies for women who accessed the same shelters and services as men. In Spain there was recent evidence of a great deal of work being done in relation to gender violence and gender mainstreaming in the area in which the samples were taken. In Sweden, the main difficulty in the sample area of Malmö, which has several districts was that providers did not necessarily know what was happening in other districts.

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What the UK service providers said ‘It’s sort of general stuff…not gender specific, so if they… access the refuge then that is there specifically for women… but otherwise, you know, most of the authorities have some kind of pre-tenancy training, life skills training aside from accommodation and floating support…like I say that’s not gender specific. It’s not just for women.’ ‘I would say we provide the same services that we provide for the males in terms of support.’ ‘I think there is always need for improvement. I think that we are supporting customers as much as we can. I think the accommodation provision is always a difficult one, however, we are privileged in Birmingham because there are schemes for females who are sleeping rough and who are affected by substance misuse.’ ‘We’ve lost a few of the female-only projects in Birmingham.’ ‘I don’t think they exist. Draft homelessness strategy didn’t particularly mention women.’ ‘Joint Strategic Needs Assessment which is the key NHS document which is going to inform the work of the new health and wellbeing boards. And we spend some time lobbying to trying to get homelessness – just even homelessness – as a general thing on the agenda for that and it has got in there in a bit, but there’s nothing specific about rough sleeping, let alone about women rough sleepers.’ What the Hungarian service providers said ‘There is no “real help” for women rough sleepers and homeless women and many have simply given up. There is a woman who arrived here last week who had left her husband. However she had not received any help for two years of seeking it. She chose to go to a homeless shelter instead, after learning there is no real help.’

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‘A battered woman without children would have to use the normal facilities for homeless women, a shelter or a hostel. By law, we can only accept them in the special refuge if they were at least three months pregnant. A normal shelter or hostel is not as safe as a house as the special refuge. Men cannot enter the shelter for women, we have bars and security guards. But it is relatively easy to find homeless women, as there are only three such shelters in the city after the winter is over. So if someone suspects their partner to be sleeping at one of these shelters, it is enough to visit three places on three different evenings and wait for them on the street.’ ‘Abused mothers can stay at the crisis mothers’ home for five days only, after which they have to leave. Abused mothers can be taken to the countryside to a secret location where their abusive partner cannot find them.’ ‘We do not have any special policy for working with homeless women. We would like to make our services safer. We would like to change the attitude of our staff.’ What the Spanish service providers said ‘Specifically for women? Now I believe that there is nothing.’ ‘There are services for women victims of violence and information centres for women. This is important work because it provides information in the more rural areas. The Andalusian Institute of Women is working with gender violence in the municipalities and they usually give information and advice.’ ‘In Granada, as such, from 2005 I remember equality policies were more directed to gender violence and gender mainstreaming.’ What the Swedish service providers said ‘No, I do not know.’

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‘We do not know as much about the woman. We must work to create a trust with the woman.’ ‘Ten districts in Malmö and women treated differently depending on which district they belong within. Some districts may be a little harder than others. Some districts have built up their own portfolio of accommodation for vulnerable women…it does look very different in the different districts.’ ‘Information and details are very poor and not enough information on what help is available or who to contact.’ ‘Information available on the Web but you need to know about “honour violence and violent victimisation” in the first place.’ ‘We do not have a list of all the activities the municipality is conducting or the different accommodation options as they arise, who can we contact.’

Delivery: working to professional guidelines The greatest number of professional guidelines, protocols, regulations and standards were used in the UK although none of these were gender specific. In Hungary, there did not appear to be any standard guidelines or protocols. In Spain there was some evidence of professional guidelines but as with the UK these were not gender specific to women. In Sweden there was significant evidence of providers working to national standards, a national handbook and professional guidelines. What the UK service providers said ‘Safeguarding policies.’ ‘Again it’s not totally gender specific…have to think a little bit more about (a male) working alone with a female depending on what that involved.’ ‘Not specifically around women. But I’d say we use the same policy with regards male rough sleepers as well.’

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‘GCSS Social Work guidelines; Homeless legislation; the homeless Code of Guidance; the Housing Act.’ ‘Homeless Link Good Practice Guidance.’ ‘Drug and Alcohol National Occupational Standards.’ ‘British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy Standards of Practice.’ ‘ISO9001, which is a European quality standard. So we have to do monthly reports for that and have an annual quality assessment visit.’ ‘We are a Registered Housing Association so quite a lot of standards and governance regulation.’ What the Hungarian service providers said ‘There are no general protocols about what should be done with women rough sleepers.’ ‘We do not have a special protocol for women who come with stories of abuse. We listen to them if they decide they want to talk about their experiences, but we do not force them to speak.’ ‘There is no strict protocol. She has to talk about it. It cannot be seen, only if she has a black eye, then we can see it. But if she was not abused physically, she was only terrorised, we cannot see it and she will not talk about it. You can see that she is broken, but it is not certain whether she is going to talk about it. In many cases, they do not talk about it.’ What the Spanish service providers said ‘No, no protocols. We are framed within homelessness and within that it is a mixed bag, there are a multitude of profiles and we have to respond in each case.’

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‘We do have a specific protocol for homeless women who are victims of gender violence.’ ‘We have a homeless protocol and then we have another which I am currently drawing up, which is for domestic violence and prostitution.’ ‘For homeless women, there is no protocol, I do not know if one exists.’ ‘The protocol is the one I’ve made and introduced. It is computerised and I do the evaluations.’ What the Swedish service providers said ‘We have a Women’s Programme Guide and a new handbook for abused women. It cannot fill all situations but is a good basis.’ ‘I know that there are guidelines based on those who become victims of rape – take samples, who to contact, etc…’ ‘We have an advocacy programme that we hold and also have training programmes for alcohol and drug therapists to become hosts.’ ‘There is a national handbook with guidelines for working with abused women.’ ‘Handbook on what should be done when meeting with these women [prostitutes].’ ‘We have a manual in the way we handle all the pieces: abuse, how we handle in emergency situations.’ ‘Ethical guidelines for research.’

Delivery: evidence of multi-agency working In the UK there was a great deal of evidence of multi-agency working, both formal and informal between a variety of different agencies, both

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service providers, local authorities, the police and the fire service. In Hungary, there appeared to be some contact between providers and the criminal justice system – particularly the police, but little between providers themselves. In Spain there was significant evidence of multiagency working between a variety of different agencies but not to the same level as that in the UK. In Sweden there was some evidence of cooperation between agencies but providers gave the impression that this could be improved. What the UK service providers said ‘Again, it’s not specific to women rough sleepers. We’ve have quite a few multi-agency meetings. Churches and charities, and we’re involved ourselves…and then we have six-monthly forums – multi-agency forums as well. Sort of in terms of front line projects, there’s an awful lot of signposting that goes on between agencies. It’s a more sort of co-ordinated approach.’ ‘We are pretty much formalised. Sharing information should technically be a little easier, however it still gets lumpy at times. I think the biggest bug bear for me is ownership…people want to own things…they don’t want to share it and, you know, to me it’s just, like, well, if we all share it we’ve going to get somewhere.’ ‘Plenty.’ ‘In Birmingham there is a “multi-agency forum” that represents a number of agencies. And what we do – we are discussing each individual – male or female – and building a joint action plan.’ ‘We’re quite pro-active. We’ve had multiple multi-agency meetings with anti-social behaviour team, social services, front line service, street wardens, police.’ ‘I think the multi-agency work is good. Information sharing between agencies I am not so convinced about. As professionals sharing ideas about how to move people forward is good, but I haven’t attended a multi-agency meeting about a specific way of doing this.’

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‘We do a lot of work with CAB, we work really closely with the police, regular meetings with social services and local supported housing providers on a monthly basis.’ ‘Oh, lots. We work with Outreach Team, Community Mental Health Team, Drug Agencies, Alcohol Support… we will work with other agencies that will complement what we do and bring something in for our service users that we don’t provide.’ ‘A good level of multi-agency working in Birmingham – as agencies we do that really well.’ What the Hungarian service providers said ‘The police and courts in Hungary do little to deal with abusive partners, hence the reason why women rough sleepers do not come forward to report domestic violence. Complaints to the police are rare. “Police do not intervene unless there is blood.”’ ‘We are in contact with the police.’ ‘In the special refuge for battered women and children – police struggle with what to do in such situations. If a battered woman comes to our place, we do not report the case to the police, unless she asks us to. Most women, however, do not want to make an official complaint. They are afraid of even more violence. I would not report their case to the police if they were not willing – it is their problem, after all? I do not think it is our responsibility as helping professionals to make an automatic report to the police. In most cases, this might result in more serious injury to the battered woman or her children. Serious injuries are different, of course – those are criminal acts.’ ‘Between many day/night shelters or hostels little multiagency takes place and rough sleepers may during the day go to one service to eat, another service to wash clothes, another service to sleep, etc… And there could be a lot of repetition in work because “no one knows the other helper

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has started the same process (support). It would be good to know these things.”’ ‘We cooperate with other shelters and hostels for women.’ ‘There are only a few women’s shelter in town, we are in regular contact with them – on the phone.’ What the Spanish service providers said ‘Well there’s a little bit of everything…but again I say the same thing, not specific in the area of ​​homeless women with violence, there are the public ones and private entities can be the hostels.’ ‘Well, I speak from the perspective of the city of Seville, as you know, because you are participating, here is a coordination with several desks where all entities involved or almost all entities who work with this homeless population. And then there are all kinds from religious and secular public.’ ‘I know of all kinds, public and private, residential resources brought by religious institutions, shelters, we know them all because we are also involved in the coordination committee on prostitution and care resources for women.’ What the Swedish service providers said ‘There is a “liaison group” and a “little network” between some organisations.’ ‘Little collaboration and interaction exists between certain services such as probation, employment services and social services.’ ‘We have cooperation when needed with other organisations. But there is a lack of up to date information on a regular basis of what places are available.’

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‘There are these different collaboration groups and I think they are really important – prostitution group, various activities that meet the women at various stages, liaison group including police, midwife, housing co-ordinator.’ ‘We sit on a networking meeting with various women’s shelters and talk about issues, cooperation with the probation service, run programmes in prison.’ ‘There is collaboration with other agencies about housing issues, then around the network, with probation, the enforcement agency, victim agency, victims who have contacted the crime hotline.’ ‘Nationally there is not much.’ ‘We have built up a partnership with all districts and other internal/external agencies to help the women on.’

Delivery: evidence of preventive measures In the UK, many providers cited the government’s ‘No Second Night Out’ initiative. There was also some evidence of local initiatives, which are clearly also examples of best practice, however, these were not standard practices but had been put in place by individuals championing this type of work. In Hungary there did not appear to be any preventive work going on and the social and cultural situation in Hungary at the present time really precludes this. In Spain, providers said that there was little preventive work on going but that this was an issue that was gaining more importance in Spain. In Sweden, providers cited two particular programmes that were on going in Malmö. What the UK service providers said ‘Once people have kind of moved into hostel accommodation it’s a lot easier to work with the women there and we can be a lot more creative around, you know, trying to work with the individual and kind of put in creative solutions and building self-esteem, helping women get their confidence back and then, you know, we can look at training, employment and all that kind of other stuff that goes along with it. And we have had massive success with specific

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females who’ve really taken off on that, you know, the offer of, kind of, support and have moved forward with it.’ ‘I know that the Council are currently rolling out the ‘No Second Night Out’ and the lady at the Council said to me that women would just be covered under that…you know there wouldn’t be any sort of specific thing done for women.’ ‘We’ve got a homelessness education project as well where we try and get them even younger (that is, in schools) to try and prevent sort of unplanned teenage moves so we’ve got a homeless education project. We go in and we do sort of storytelling sessions with…Reception [and] Year 1s and that’s just the story about, you know, this cow that loses her house and things like that, and her friends builds her a new one…so it’s a very sort of softly, softly approach… we don’t actually talk about homelessness, but we just talk about thoughts and feelings.’ We’ve got a Year 6 programme which actually gets them to think about what is a home, what makes it your home, you know. We’ve also got a toolkit of sessions that we can offer as well for that age group…we’ve got sort of a budgeting exercise to make them realise that actually it’s not that cheap an option to live on your own…a supported housing one which actually says that it’s not all lovely and glamorous and you don’t have parties and you know there are curfews, restrictions on visitors and you’ve got to do your own washing and you’ve got to do your own ironing.’ What the Hungarian service providers said ‘Many women come here after more than a decade of having slept rough. Most users are 50–55 years old. By the time they get here, it is very likely that they have experienced abuse, that they struggle with addiction, that they come with partners with whom they live out of necessity, not just through choice. I think it is sad that prevention is almost non-existent, that these women (and the men as well) receive no real help while on the streets.’

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‘There appears to be a culture in Hungary that when violence is committed by a male partner against a female partner it is the woman’s fault. When I was working at the children’s welfare centre even the family supporters who were women told these women it was their fault to provoke what had happened.’ ‘I am not aware of preventive steps that would help women being housed.’ ‘There are many NGOs that help women who have suffered abuse. Prevention, however, should start in the family.’ What the Spanish service providers said ‘No, no, if I say the truth is that, if I think about it, no.’ ‘As a precaution I think [that there] should be more centres of low demand, that women who are on the street know that there is a specific area for them, not unisex, to be men and women, but a house or a specific space for them, they can go to sleep and alleviate a little damage.’ What the Swedish service providers said ‘We developed Respect Me and Women’s Programme which used all the knowledge that existed and included consultation. It also created relationships between organisations that I never knew about or had a relationship with before.’ ‘It all depends on which group of homeless women you are talking about. Immigrant women of different cultures have a lot of information how the Swedish system works and what rights they have. Women from arranged marriages and the like as well. Those who do not know can get information from hubs in the community as well as religious associations or similar, information on the town, emergency phones… that’s prevention.’ ‘Prevention work on homelessness exists but no prevention work to prevent violence against women.’

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‘There are a lot of neighbourhoods that are working with resident groups to prevent eviction and then there is an outreach mobile team who come across homeless people “out there” and those about to become homeless.’ ‘Being able to do gender specific treatment (substance misuse, addiction care, detoxification) is of course a way, a prevention method for women.’

Delivery: evidence of ‘good practice’ In the UK there were pockets of excellent practice but the main problem was that this good practice was not being disseminated to wider populations of service providers. In Hungary they felt that their best service was outreach and certain rehabilitation programmes which ran within shelters in Budapest as well as individual counselling that was given to women. In Spain work was being done in schools in relation to gender violence and providers mentioned two projects in Malaga specifically: the ‘emancipated women’ and the ‘single door’ projects. In Sweden, providers mentioned the ‘Hub’: a new hostel for women in Malmö where there were targeted activities and a telephone helpline. What the UK service providers said ‘We put in for some funding through the Homeless Transition Fund for individual budgets so that we can work more flexibly with people.’ ‘Good practice would be we are working closely with agencies that are dealing with issues specific to females such as female prostitution/sex work.’ ‘Creative working with individuals we’ve done quite well. We’ve done jewellery making, tried to do personal care with females who…access the hostel, done pamper sessions, female kind of activities.’ ‘Supporting lodging scheme. Predominately at the moment for 16- and 17-year-olds. So if you’ve got a young homeless come through then we’ve got host families which are like foster families.’

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What the Hungarian service providers said ‘We have a good relationship with the outreach team. We only receive couples who have been sleeping rough through the recommendation of an outreach team. This is a relatively new programme, we started it three years ago as a response to the need of rough sleeping couples, who had no place to go if they wanted to stay together.’ ‘In one organisation the building is divided into different floors to cater for the different types of homeless persons and one way out of homelessness is through finding work to earn money. We have half a corridor for people who wish to find a way out of homelessness through employment.’ ‘Outreach teams bring us people directly. They report them to the 24-hour phone-line.’ ‘We have developed a programme of rehabilitation recently, similar to those of drug addicts. People can be admitted on a voluntary basis, but once they are in, they have to cooperate. There would be groups tackling issues of abuse. We would like to get apartments where these women can be housed safely. We have the programme developed, we need to get the funding.’ ‘Try to work with women on an individual basis and sometimes we develop a really good relationship.’ What the Spanish service providers said ‘I have really enjoyed working on gender violence in secondary schools and it’s good. I have drawn attention to third world countries, in countries where there is much violence, how they are working, very good workshops on gender violence on prevention and on the roles of women and men. Well, breaking many cultural barriers or trying to break many cultural barriers, right?’ ‘In Seville, there has been in recent years an important effort to advance attention on homelessness over the last decade. Good practice is mainly based on coordination.’

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‘The Single Door Project in Malaga – the “Puerta Única” [“single door” in English; it’s a development partnership for homeless people in Málaga which involves various entities that work in this area]. As a city council the demand from a homeless person comes from somewhere else, directly from the local police, from neighbours or from any contact person we might have. The homeless person can also go directly to “Puerta Única”, or to the municipal emergency centre and then to “Puerta Única”.’ What the Swedish service providers said ‘The “Hub”…where women have access to substitution treatment without having to wait in a two-year waiting list.’ ‘The Helpline is very supportive.’ ‘Before there used to be a lack of activities targeted at this audience, but there appear to be more and more activities now.’ ‘There are a few hospitals which focus on treating women’s abuse and also address the issue of violence.’ But often it comes down to having sufficient project funds to support such activities ‘It is about investing in this group of women and that they should be treated as victims of violence and are vulnerable. You have to somehow see their violence, victimisation, see their homelessness, see the entire picture and what their needs are.’ ‘Making a home visit with the woman and so support her in that way. Motivate her.’ ‘You have to act quickly to support these women and provide activities for them.’

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Impact The third and final theme within the service provider interviews is that of impact, where we asked questions about why women rough sleepers might be falling through the social safety net; what factors service providers felt might bring them back into mainstream society; any operational and policy changes they would like to see; and, finally, any general issues that they wished to raise that the interview had not covered.

Impact: operational and policy suggestions In terms of operational issues that were raised by providers in the UK were a more coordinated approach from services, greater focus on prevention, more women’s services, better training and leadership and more funding. In terms of policy, UK service providers said that there should be greater consultation with the government and that the government should use a better counting strategy and should acknowledge the reality of the impact of welfare reforms. In Hungary, providers said better referral mechanisms and more support for women victims of abuse was required as well as more time to deal with them individually. At a policy level comments were realistically constrained by the current political situation in Hungary, which we have already mentioned. However, providers agreed that there should be government policies to help the most vulnerable women in their society. In Spain service providers said that operationally there needed to be more resources, better coordination between agencies and a greater emphasis on specialist services. In terms of policy they felt that there should be more effective prevention strategies, separate provision for men and women as the norm and the development of a national template for working with men and women rough sleepers. At a policy level they recommended raising awareness with policy makers about the extent and nature of the problem, greater access to housing, a review of policies and a formalised process of dismantling national stereotypes about homelessness and homeless people. What the UK service providers said ‘The biggest thing for me is ensuring that agencies work together and trust. At the moment it’s just disjointed. A more co-ordinated approach to things is required.’

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‘Prevention – I think it’s very important, because what we did find is that the longer a person is on the street again, male or female, the more difficult it is for them to engage with services.’ ‘Equal access to services, no immediate provision for females really.’ ‘More direct access hostels. We struggle to place anyone outside of area.’ ‘We’d like to see more literature, more seminars, and perhaps raise the profile a bit more because the profile around women seems to be around domestic violence, to be honest with you…Domestic violence relationship breakdowns. But nothing really specifically targeting women rough sleepers.’ ‘Some sort of leadership from above, really, to steer how services are going to work, really, and protocols and how to refer clients and the support given in a co-ordinated approach. So operationally I think that is what’s needed. And maybe some sort of personalisation as well thrown in…particularly for those clients who are more vulnerable.’ ‘Specific funding where you could run weekly womenonly sessions.’ ‘A house specifically for women who are moving out of rough sleeping and there would need to be a very high level of support, so that wouldn’t be the cheap option, but it would be a cost saving option in the end.’ ‘Some kind of rapid response that’s maybe sub-regional or regional that those authorities who don’t have a lot of rough sleepers can buy into and activate very, very quickly, so that there is a rapid response so that someone isn’t neglected or ignored. I think all the lessons in Birmingham have been about how you deal with it very, very quickly. You do not allow the person to become entrenched and the problems not tackled and ignored and I think that’s why it has been so successful in Birmingham, that you know that they are on it all the time.’

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‘Our economy is failing, people are losing jobs, affordable housing is an issue, where to build is an issue as we’ve got no land to build on.’ ‘More consultation, more involvement in policy development.’ ‘More “resources”. Some have drastically had their funding cut. And therefore will be going through a period of “Can they survive?” Certainly services have been affected and services are going. What Birmingham have done is prioritise services that deal with statutory priorities. There are services that will be experiencing between 11 to 13 per cent cuts. We’ve absorbed a 28 per cent cut in our services. Downsizing some services in order to survive.’ ‘Benefit changes have now started to roll out as of January (2012) and we’ve seen that already…we’re having people contact us saying they can’t afford to pay the additional money that they have to pay in their private tenancy, parents are kicking their children out because they are like a cost to that child so they can’t afford to pay the cost.’ ‘Issue of numbers, obviously, the way that the government said they should be counted has led to a massive underestimate of impact.’ What the Hungarian service providers said ‘Many women have psychiatric problems. There needs to be adequate referral mechanisms put into place so that they can be placed in specialised in-patient services who are given the necessary financial and other resources to adequately meet needs.’ ‘Specialist treatment and support to those who have suffered abuse.’ ‘I think it is better to have mixed shelters as well as ones for women only or men only.’

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‘I think practical help would be most important. All they get is being told to issue a file against the abuser but then have to return to the same home. They would need a place to stay. These secret shelters are not sufficient, for they are short term. One cannot do anything in such short time.’ ‘The problem is that social workers do not have time to speak to them. Maybe they have a contract or a work plan, but it is not the same type of attention.’ ‘There needs to be more services for women rough sleepers.’ ‘When the system of services for the homeless was created, they favoured the staircase system: it was supposed that people would sleep in shelters, then a hostel, save money and move to their own rented apartment. But it does not work like this in real life, we have seen it clearly in the 19 years since. I think laws should have been revised after 10 years.’ ‘I also think that homeless services are too rigid – they should react to the needs noticed in a more flexible way.’ ‘I think we should have more shelters and hostels that receive whole communities, both men and women. I think we should give priority to rough sleepers on the one hand, and people who have only become homeless recently. If these people do not receive help fast, within six months they might learn how to behave like a homeless [person], pick up those attitudes, etc and then it is difficult to move them out.’ ‘In the current economic climate there is a need to have better policies that change lives of women rough sleepers. In the current climate it is difficult to get a job, or even a pension – how could they rent something then? Some people have been homeless for 10–14 years and have been using various services, with no real changes in their lives.’ ‘Reforms should start from the bottom-up – that would be more successful than top-down attempts. If 20 homeless women decided to get together and help one another, they

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should be supported, maybe given a place free of charge where they could hold their meetings. This would be more efficient than punishing people for sleeping rough. Or the new programme in the eighth district, where rough sleepers have to start working regularly, and then they can get into social housing. I agree with my leader, who favours the English or American good ideas, that homelessness can become like an addiction, and that people learn to live in a parallel world to others. We think homeless people should apply for social benefit in the place where they live, and not at the central office for the homeless. At the moment I see that most local authorities do not really want to help the homeless. I think it is not enough to give homeless people a roof over their head, you have to give them all kinds of comprehensive support to enable them to keep that housing.’ What the Spanish service providers said ‘Specific resources for homeless women and more work with them on empowerment and self-esteem.’ ‘Coordination with other resources, then what we are doing, what we lack, what is financial, intercultural mediation services.’ ‘Everyone does a bit of everything, there is not a limit between the public and the private competencies, there is a lack of administrative coordination between different administrations and there is a total lack of coordination between private and public entities. In the end…I mean, that’s where we must start.’ ‘We need to begin with a control, with one unified database in which we can actually monitor this phenomenon.’ ‘I think there is no law or anything structured politically.’ ‘I believe that at the political level in recent years there has been an important breakthrough here in the city of Seville and also has been an effort to improve and clean up political resources for the homeless.’

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‘What can be further improved? I think specific day centres for women and legislation. I think our country today, in recent years, we have advanced the topic around regulatory, social and civil rights which are very important.’ ‘I believe there is no incorporation of the gender perspective in terms of laws, both violence law, the law of equality.’ ‘We need some organisation from top to bottom; to end this disorganisation and to end all the limitations.’ ‘Well, in this regard I think it is very important to clearly define the competencies, to clearly define the coordination and then we need a guaranteed budget. I think that the problem lies with the municipality; it’s a very local, very territorial problem.’ What the Swedish service providers said ‘It would be good if the problems within a family setting could be tackled at an earlier stage in that “one goes in there and you may be able to save the situation there”.’ ‘Women and men should have separate accommodation and not be in mixed accommodation.’ ‘Better understanding of how all the various agencies work and what they do, who is responsible for what, who should be prioritised.’ ‘It must probably start with collaboration (for example between agencies such as probation, social services, employment services) in order to see the big picture. The fact that we learn how to work with these women, how we work (as an organisation with other organisations), how we think, etc.’ ‘Motivational work with women rough sleepers.’ ‘Development of a template – how to work, who to call, control instruments, structured meetings.’

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‘Everything in one place so they do not have to run around.’ ‘Having a more flexible approach that can help the individual.’ ‘More funding in order to do more things with women, otherwise it is difficult.’ ‘Housing is a major problem for many you meet, violence is a major problem for the majority of the women you meet. It’s both about violence in childhood and violence from a partner, they (women) themselves engage in violence and perhaps from others in society as well. [You need to] try to pay attention to the problems and talk to them and improve cooperation with/between other agencies.’ ‘Raise awareness about women’s problems and relationship building.’ ‘At a national level we need a clearly articulated strategy by the government.’ ‘Need to review our policies and some dubious words, media images of violence versus the actual image, victim is not a high priority, fundamental changes at least in the elementary school and beyond is necessary.’

Impact: evidence of women rough sleepers falling through the social safety net Within this section there were some marked similarities between what providers told us were the reasons for women falling through the social safety net. In the UK providers said that women victims of abuse who had slept rough had very complex needs and the multitude of problems each could have was not always picked up because the nature of women was to hide their homelessness and other problems, and to remain invisible. Therefore there was a problem of lack of engagement and a reluctance to admit problems or to ask for help. In Hungary, providers also said that women would not talk about abuse or homelessness because they felt guilt and shame and were fearful of prejudice. They also commented that many Hungarian women normalised violence within their relationships. In Spain, providers also said that women

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presented with complex problems for which there were often not enough resources. They also said women were reluctant to ask for help and normalised abusive relationships. In Sweden, providers also said women were reluctant to ask for help and that they often did not admit or show that they were in difficulties; they would internalise their problems and feel that they must solve everything themselves. What the UK service providers said ‘Complexity of needs means they are impossible to pick up; the longer they are on the streets the more difficult it is to work with them.’ ‘I think we’re more aware. But they’ll always be, I think, people who slip through the net. I think even with the best systems in the world I think people will fall through the net…I think women will fall through the net.’ ‘There’s always this small minority group that just don’t want to engage with services. Yeah, that’s what was going through my head.’ ‘Without a doubt, because women hide things, women will put on a smile and pretend that everything’s okay.’ ‘The reason being lack of trust towards the agencies, the reason being substance misuse and chaotic lifestyle. There are individuals who are falling through the net and there are cases were customers are constantly going through this revolving door.’ ‘I do and I think it’s because women over the years build a lot of resilience and as I say quite often they’re reluctant to speak about the problems in the first place so it’ll go on for a lot longer…they’ll suffer for a lot longer and we have, kind of, social networks that we can tap into – family, friends, so again you’ll do that for a little bit longer. So those things will tick along for a lot longer rather than dealing with the problem or asking for help, either.’

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What the Hungarian service providers said ‘One of the key cultural problems in Hungary is that women will not talk about the violence they have suffered at the hands of their partner. There are women that come to us really beaten up, but still will not talk about it.’ ‘When I was working in outreach, these were the three main reasons for not turning to a service: stereotypes, freedom and community or partners. I knew a group of homeless people who lived in a community and they shared everyday tasks: one person would go and scavenge garbage bins, another would cook lunch, the third one would collect wood to make a fire…You could not live this lifestyle in a homeless service. This type of stability helps them live through the day.’ ‘There are a lot of prejudices that homeless people have to face. If their address is a homeless shelter, many employers might not want to employ them. Homeless people are aware of this, and they have had enough of being humiliated. It is very difficult for them to get ahead.’ ‘I have clients who have been released from prison. They struggle with integration. No-one wants to employ her as she has a stain on her police record.’ ‘There are women who do not even realise that they are being abused because it is accepted as “normal” and a way of life. They do not realise that “terror and things like that” is also abuse.’ What the Spanish service providers said ‘They have complex needs and what they need is support and a more continuous level of moral, psychological, support from a worker, a professional reference that will be guiding and working with them.’ ‘The issue of resources which are also needed.’

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‘I think as women we are taught to be dependent, then it may be, we are taught not to make decisions for ourselves, it may seem that we are asking for permission.’ What the Swedish service providers said ‘Women rough sleepers find it difficult to ask for help, they are not taken seriously.’ ‘Women allow the abuse to carry on for much further and longer before leaving and seeking help. The reason for this could probably be that women feel a sense of guilt and shame.’ ‘They keep up appearances for some time before understanding that need to leave the abusive situation. It can take a long time for a woman to ask for help.’ ‘Women are not always heard unless they scream for help.’ ‘When women come here, although they were exposed to all forms of violence, they may not know it’s illegal… it may be legal in their home country but it’s illegal here. They fall through the cracks.’ ‘Because of financial security, they do not know where to turn, they do not know their rights, what help they can get. How do you cope with bills and have no means of social services, for example, the quickest solution is to find a man to move in with.’ ‘They keep a low profile. Perhaps brought up to endure it (violence).’ ‘Women have internalised this and blame themselves for the situation they find themselves in. It’s very much “guilt and shame you carry” and hence they keep quiet about the violence and do not report it.’

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Impact: what would help bring women rough sleepers back into mainstream society? In the UK, providers commented that issues that would help bring women rough sleepers back into mainstream society included having an understanding of the complex needs of such women and that they often required work on a one-to-one basis. They said such women need to feel valued, to get their confidence and their place in society back. To do this they need to be given responsibility, opportunities and trust. In Hungary, providers said that there needed to be more awareness about the fact that services for abused women existed so that they knew they had choices. Once there they needed to be given better skills for life. In Spain, providers felt that women’s mental health issues should be tackled more effectively and that there should be greater awareness of the psychological damage suffered by women who had been abused and slept rough who needed support, employment, to feel good about themselves and encouragement to more independent of men. In Sweden, providers said that women needed to be heard, to recover, to reconnect with their children and to be given the support necessary to regain their confidence. They also said that it was time that the issue of violence against women was no longer a ‘taboo’ subject and should be more widely acknowledged as the problem it is. What the UK service providers said ‘Understanding and dealing with complex needs.’ ‘Co-ordinated services.’ ‘Person centred – personalisation.’ ‘Let’s make sure that we give the woman time to deal with her emotions, to deal with her children because they would have gone through, well, if she’s got children, a shocking time.’ ‘Systems are not joined up, are they really…even with the best will in the world they’re not, because we’ve all got our budgets and our services that we want to maintain, etc… So it’s about policy makers…people who do strategies, people who write contracts, people who commission work, being

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aware of all these multitude of things and not just always have things in a narrow way.’ ‘Give them responsibility. Show them that you trust them. Give them something to do…a meaningful thing to do. Make them feel like they got a voice, value them, give them opportunities, you know, women rough sleepers have been away with us twice this year overnight on a residential and what have they got from that? So many experiences that they will never forget; so many experiences that she will never forget.’ ‘Make them feel valued, because in their eyes and to be honest they are quite right – society don’t value them, society don’t even give them a second look and you know… why not? Because I tell you what their life experiences and the wealth of information those girls have got, flipping heck don’t matter what I do I’m never ever going have that kind of valuable information in my life. And I learn off them as well and I think that is really important you know.’ What the Hungarian service providers said ‘There needs to be more publicity and information of what services are available for women rough sleepers.’ ‘Services are very limited and where women rough sleepers find a service they do not share information with other women in order to protect their access to such a service because they feel threatened that they will lose access to that service in favour of someone else. Currently, many homeless women do not know about this place, and those who like it would not talk about it, so others won’t take their place.’ ‘Retrain women rough sleepers so that skills they had before are relearnt.’ ‘Unfortunately there is a very little chance of restoration. But let me note that people do not become homeless overnight. By the time one comes in to a shelter, they have lost all social contacts; they have no relatives, parents, children, or friends who could help.’

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What the Spanish service providers said ‘I think it is important to work with mental illness.’ ‘We must deepen the psycho-social, or psychological, must deepen programmes affecting the self-esteem of these women, we must delve into specific resources for women victims of violence and homeless day centres specifically for women.’ ‘At all levels also socio-educational, psychological, addiction, at all levels, family, to really see what’s wrong with that woman, to see where to start boarding, then obviously there must be a general and global approach, to see from mental health to the whole issue of the family.’ ‘If we had more time to work primarily on a psychological level, I think it would get much better results.’ ‘Key factors in many cases, the issue of rehabilitation, the issue of support, work, employment and self-esteem is essential also, these people feel good about themselves and their environment too.’ ‘Counselling, support and much encouragement.’ What the Swedish service providers said ‘Women do not have confidence, not accustomed to make their voices heard, live destructive lives, beaten for their choice by a man or by several men. Women cannot find the way, they have not seen options available to them. No one has presented society’s options for them. They do not know how to proceed. They have never been taught. So they become bitter towards society and may not want to seek help so it becomes a vicious cycle.’ ‘Regarding the housing situation, I believe in some sort of halfway house where both the probation and social services work together so this person has a reasonable chance to safety get into society again. They will need to be connected with employment services to get support in

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finding work, they may need to be connected with school if they have children.’ ‘Women may need to be re-connected with their children who may be in care or even if the father is looking after them.’ ‘She needs this support for a long time. First in order to regain a bit of self-confidence and then they should feel that she has a safe place to work from when I go on the job or training or whatever it may be. In all cases [she] should not be fully social grant dependent but heading out to [being] self-supporting.’ ‘You have to have something to replace the destructive relationship with a man otherwise it’s hard to walk away from the man. Have something else to replace [it] and employment. It is really important to find something they enjoy doing.’ ‘It would be pretty good if you could get to something that applies to everyone.’ ‘A lot of support…it takes a long time to get away from both an addiction and being a victim of violence, there are many things you need to work on.’ ‘Information is needed that reaches the different groups so they know their rights and is also produced in a language they understand.’ ‘Stop treating violence against a victim as a taboo subject’.

Impact: general issues As we said earlier in this chapter, at the end of each interview, we gave service providers an opportunity to raise any issues they felt were particularly important or that they felt the interview had not covered. This is a sample of what they said.

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What the UK service providers said ‘We need time to consider the impact of current policies such as “No Second Night Out”.’ ‘Supporting people in general has had a 20 per cent cut in total. We’ve negotiated lower rates with the organisations we work with.’ ‘We need to consider the impact of housing cuts, benefit cuts and what impact these will have – starting to see impact next year. We are working more closely with private sector to see if they will accept vulnerable people.’ ‘There is more monitoring now – how you are using your time. So how long are you taking to do a key work, how long are you taking to do a risk assessment, how long are you taking to do a support session, how long you are taking to do an application…so where previously before it wasn’t about how long I took to sit with a client…I could take a whole day if that young person needed it or that older person needed it or that woman or man needed it…it could be a whole day that I spent with that person in a room, we’ve gone shopping…it’s not like that now…it’s about allotting your time across all of the people that you work with. Now that fluctuates for that person because when they first come in they may need a lot of support…as time goes by they may not need as much support…but then a sort of crisis might hit and you may need to come in and give them more support again. Monitoring its increased.’ Funding cuts ‘[Impact has been] massive. We were doing mediation work which is obviously all relevant to people rough sleeping – that’s gone now.’ ‘[An organisation] has lost all their accommodation.’ ‘Carers’ agency – that’s gone. At the moment it’s not great. In terms of suitable accommodation, that’s a really big issue.’

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‘The housing benefit changes have a massive impact. The shared room rate for people that are now 35 and under is massive. We get so many people in here and you know obviously you have to be honest and you can just see their faces like never going to get anywhere in Lancaster for £50…it’s horrible.’ Benefit changes ‘They can get benefit but they can only get the shared room rate for that so before it was people that was under 25 they could only get like £50 a week, that’s now been moved up to 35 so realistically at 35 you’re not going to live with your parents and you wouldn’t expect people to have to live with – if they want to that’s their choice – but obviously I see a lot of people coming in here who are under 35 who want to find private rented accommodation…they’re not going to find private rented accommodation for £50. So I mean that’s male and female…and that’s going to have a massive impact on everyone that’s under that age. It’s not great.’ ‘I think we need to challenge stereotypes. If you asked someone what homeless meant they would say, “It’s a dirty old man and he’s a tramp and he’s asleep on the street corner and he’s begging for money.”’ ‘I think a lot of people still don’t realise that actually homeless can mean you know you’re sofa surfing, you know. When you do say to people “homeless” they do still think of, you know, the stereotype, you know…sleeping in cardboard boxes in shop doorways and that kind of… but that kind of London image everything is very kind of focused…and okay they’re the major city and they probably got the biggest problem with rough sleeping, but it’s all very kind of London focused.’ ‘I’d like to see Mr Shapps [then Housing Minister] come to our local area and look and talk to us about what our issues and problems really are.’

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Women rough sleepers in Europe

Government’s housing benefit changes ‘We’re going to see an increase in the number of people coming through the doors basically…and they’re going to need assistance…we’re really going to struggle. Single people in general you know where are we going to place them?…they won’t be able to afford one-bedroom accommodation. We have a real shortage of one-bedroom accommodation anyway so we’re really going to struggle… they’re going to be on the housing register for a very long time. Private rental sector for one bed…I mean we do quite a lot of work with the private landlords and letting agents, but it’s quite difficult to get them to engage with us because, you know, they’ve got their own market which is very buoyant…it’s very difficult for us to try and put forward our customers when they’ve got someone whose working, etc…, it’s very difficult so it’s not very attractive to work with us.’ Funding ‘We’ve had to reduce our opening hours, reduction in staffing. Very tough climate. Staff are on fixed term contracts now for the life of that particular contract that they are employed to deliver so the contract comes to an end, it’s not refunded then we lose our staff.’ ‘Like most other agencies are just struggling even to keep our core services going let alone sort of doing more for a specific client group.’ What the Hungarian service providers said ‘I just wanted to say how surprised and sad I am about how the idea of “the woman” has changed after the social change in 1989. I hoped “the woman” would no longer only be “the mother”, or “the pretty girl” in Hungarian society, but unfortunately the direction things are changing is not at all how they should. I don’t know how to put it, but for example, in the late 1980s and early 1990s when I was young, girls dressed as girls. Now, many of them dress

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Analysing and understanding: service providers’ stories

as prostitutes, which I think is because societal changes message for them: “you can only assert yourself with the help of your body”.’ ‘Our address is not public, and we do not give information about our users to any private person. Unfortunately, many abusive husbands know about us, so they come here to look for their wives.’ ‘A middle-aged woman lived here in a double room with her girlfriend. When she came here she told us that she was abused. She has been living with her husband for more than 20 years, they had children as well who grew up and moved out, etc. The woman was living here for more than a year when she disappeared for a couple of days. When she came back, we cried when we saw her, I have never seen someone more beaten than her, her eyes were down here…What happened was that she ran into her husband – she was going to the marketplace or something like that. Then the man picked her up, took her up to an apartment near there, tied her to a chair and beat her for two days… Then he let her go. We were really scared, the woman was in a horrible condition.’ ‘Homeless services should be made safer. I heard stories that some women got raped while lining up in the evening to get in the night shelter. Or that people would get robbed when they have received their pension.’ ‘We have never before had to make a choice between our principles and expectations coming from above. I am really uncertain about what to expect. I do not yet know how all these changes will affect our work, our ethical principles, what we have learnt in school. I do not see how social workers will react when there will be protests against them. We are not prepared for this at all.’ What the Spanish service providers said ‘An important aspect is training; we need to enhance training levels appropriate to this population.’

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Women rough sleepers in Europe

‘Over 95 per cent have been or are victims of domestic violence and that is very serious; they are not in contact with the services that give attention to women, so they do not feel good, well served; they are afraid of being judged and rejected.’ ‘There is a problem of sexual abuse in childhood, but we do not have data on this so this is a cause for concern.’ ‘I think it’s very important to work in a multidisciplinary way; they [the women] have many aspects, as we all have many aspects of our lives and it is very important to cover them all.’ ‘More work needs to be done on the psychological process of self-worth, to support and to empower women.’ What the Swedish service providers said ‘It’s very important that staff working in organisations to support women rough sleepers show the right form of behaviour in order to get through to women in order to then effectively engage and move forward. And the way you (staff) show respect is important.’ ‘Working within groups with other women is important in order for them to feel part of a supportive social network and that way “you take care of each other”.’ ‘It takes a lot of effort to engage with women rough sleepers and get them to open up and when they first come to a women’s group they may not be in the mood to engage/ open up because of the circumstances they have faced but after a while this changes.’ ‘I think it’s very seldom that I have a single woman in the office; they come with the man in tow. It is such a destructive relationship. They beat each other, they seek treatment together and say I beat him but it was he who hit me and they went away together. So it’s very complicated conditions.’

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From the last set of this rich data where providers were asked if they wished to raise any topics not covered by the interview we can see that a number of issues emerged indicating what service providers felt a) most strongly about and b) what they were most concerned about. As with the rest of the qualitative information from these interviews, although there are some differences, the similarities between what service providers are saying in different countries are still remarkably similar. In the UK providers were clearly most worried about the current economic crisis and the subsequent impact of welfare reforms introduced by the government. Their concerns in the main lay around cuts in services and the negative effects of this on what they would be able to provide to their clients. They were also anxious that current stereotypes of the homeless should be challenged and that a better understanding of what homelessness means and why people become homeless should be a goal. In Hungary, where a difficult political climate currently prevails, providers were clearly worried about the role of women in Hungarian society alongside the issue of trying to keep their clients safe. They felt that the severity of abuse suffered by women was not acknowledged or understood in Hungary; that it was somewhat normalised and their concerns for the future included how political and social development in Hungary would affect the services that were currently offered. In Spain, service providers on the whole appeared to acknowledge that more needed to be done to raise awareness about the levels of abuse that prevailed against women in Spanish society where they, too, felt it was somewhat normalised, especially in rural locations. They were keen to promote the role of women in society and specifically to improve women’s self-confidence, self-esteem and self-worth in order to send a message to women that they need not endure abuse at the hands of men. Finally in Sweden, providers said that it was important to show respect and understanding to women who had been abused and slept rough since they were a complex and difficult group with which to deal. The following chapter will detail the quantitative data that was gathered from our interviews with both women rough sleepers and service providers and will give a comparative account of this.

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SIX

Explaining women’s rough sleeping This chapter builds on the qualitative analysis in Chapters Four and Five and summarises the major quantitative findings of the research in a comparative way across all four countries in the study. It looks in detail at issues such as the comparative demographic findings, the significance of factors such as the numbers of children belonging to women who sleep rough, the existence of partner abuse and mental health issues and why these are critical findings. It will also highlight the significance of the problem of long-term complex mental health problems for women rough sleepers, which clearly requires further attention, the number of women whose homelessness is directly attributable to partner abuse and their experiences of access to services. It will endeavour from the analysis to explain the major factors, which appear to prevail in relation to the motivation for women to sleep rough and the possible understandings, which can be gained from the findings of this research. All the partner countries aimed to interview 20 women rough sleepers in each partner country. Obviously this group was very hard to reach and in spite of the best endeavours of the researchers and the help of service providers in each country, in some cases the full 20 interviews were not undertaken. We indicated in an earlier chapter that we adopted a broad definition of the concept of homelessness or rooflessness to reflect the specific experiences of women. This definition can be accessed in Appendix one which shows the research instruments. Most of the data collected was qualitative, however, we were able to present some of the findings quantitatively and that tabulated data is shown later in this chapter. Each partner country’s findings are discussed individually before being compared. Although all the samples in the study were random, it is important to point out that we cannot generalise these findings to a wider population.

Demographics and characteristics of women rough sleepers in the study The women in the UK sample were characterised in the main as having no normal social networks and lives characterised by alienation from

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Women rough sleepers in Europe

family and friends, most often at the hand of an abusive partner who had in many cases succeeded in ostracising the woman from all ‘normal’ social networks. Although ‘normal’ is a subjective term, we decided to adhere to this description for the women in our samples because this was terminology with which those organisations working with them were familiar. In these cases ‘normal social networks’ seemed to imply the presence of friends, family members such as parents, siblings and possibly grandparents, which none of the women in the samples appeared to have, either through forced or voluntary separation. Added to this any social networks they may have encountered through an occupation, studying or socialising similarly did not exist in the majority of cases. Within the sample of women rough sleepers from the UK the average age of the women was 35.6 years; 85 per cent defined themselves as British Caucasian, 5 per cent black British, 5 per cent British Indian and 5 per cent Indian. The sample was entirely random, but it is fair to say that within the West Midlands, it does not reflect other cultures or communities that are involved in rough sleeping – the white eastern European community is one such and this needs to be borne in mind therefore (see Figure 6.1). Figure 6.1: UK: ethnicity Black British 5%

British Indian Indian 5% 5%

British Caucasian 85%

Fifty-five per cent of the women in the sample said that they had experienced family abuse and 85 per cent said that they had experienced partner abuse. Sixty per cent of the women reported being dependent on alcohol and 55 per cent reported dependence on drugs. Thirty-five per cent had been in prison or in trouble with the police and 20 per cent had engaged in sex work. In terms of the incidences of sleeping rough, 55 per cent reported that they had slept rough more than five times; 15 per cent said that they had slept rough

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Explaining women’s rough sleeping

three or more times; 10 per cent slept rough twice and 15 per cent slept rough only once. Eighty per cent of the sample had children. The majority of the women interviewed (in fact all but three) had been victims of intimate partner (domestic) violence. Two women who had not been victims of intimate partner violence said that they had previously lived in family situations where their father had abused their mother. All the women rough sleepers interviewed had mental health issues, ranging from depression to more serious mental illnesses such as bipolarity and also permanent mental health issues arising out of long-term drug and alcohol abuse. Many were, or had been, selfharmers. Most of the women in the sample had strong views on the service provision they had accessed; they expressed dislike for some centres which had strict regimes that operated within them including curfews, intense, judgemental interviewing processes and strict criteria for entry. They were not in favour of hostels because they did not want to be around other people who also had multiple problems, and saw it as being ‘bedded down with strangers’. A number said that they would prefer to sleep rough than be forced to share accommodation with others like this. They saw it as counterproductive to their own process of seeking help. They expressed views that some service providers were judgemental towards them; even in some cases asking them to prove that they had become homeless because of abuse. Women who reported this asked how they should do this. The service providers which were favoured by women in the sample appeared to be the ones that had a focus on providing a tailored, personal service which women felt would assist them back into mainstream society by focusing on health issues, life skills and employability. The general consensus from these women was that there should be a much wider range of women only services. Sixty-five per cent of women rough sleepers had children but the majority were not living with them but did wish to be reconnected. Children had been taken away shortly after birth, put into care, fostered or adopted. This was a source of great distress to the women who were interviewed. Some specific comments included: ‘I lost my two children four years ago because of my drug abuse and homelessness. They have now been adopted but I send cards to them and I hope they will look for me when they are older.’ Seventy per cent of the women had experienced abuse from a partner(s), all of whom reported that this was what led them ultimately to become homeless. Forty per cent of women rough sleepers said

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Women rough sleepers in Europe

that they had also experienced abuse within the family home before this; 45 per cent of these women reported having mental health issues. ‘I’ve been in hospital for attempted suicide…and I’m on medication for depression.’ Within the Hungarian sample the average age was 47 years. Eightyfive per cent of the women described themselves as White Eastern European and 15 per cent as Romany (see Figure 6.2). Figure 6.2: Hungary: ethnicity Romany 15%

White te Eastern ern European opean 85% %

Both the women and the Hungarian service providers reported that there were cultural problems for Romanies who were the subject of stigma and racial abuse. The prevalence of these within the sample may also be underrepresented as with the Eastern European and other cultures in the UK sample. Thirty per cent of this sample said that they had been victims of family abuse leading to them leaving home and 50 per cent were victims of partner abuse leading to homelessness. Seventyfive per cent of the sample had children. Only 5 per cent admitted to drug use or abuse and 10 per cent reported alcohol dependence or abuse. In comparison to the UK sample, these figures are low and it prompts a question as to whether there is a cultural explanation. None of the Hungarian women rough sleepers either mentioned or admitted to involvement sex work. This is unusual and highlights the question of whether all the women in the sample were truthful about this aspect of the interview. If not, it may demonstrate the stigma and shame still felt about this course of action. Of the women who were not abused by family members or partners, the main reason for leaving home was break up in the family or death of family members leading

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Explaining women’s rough sleeping

to their being taken into state care or fostered at a young age. This in turn resulted in their leaving school with few or no qualifications, having no skills or training and therefore being unable to get a job, pay rent for a flat and thus becoming homeless. Women in the sample who had suffered abuse from partners and subsequently left them, also had no training or qualifications, no family support and therefore could not get a job and also ended up homeless or in hostels. Both of these situations were exacerbated by the current economic situation in Hungary and in both cases, these women had their children taken away from them by the state or fostered. Most did not have contact with their children. Seventy-five per cent had children – a slightly higher proportion than in the UK. ‘My husband left and my children went into state care from age of 12 as I fell ill and could not look after them…then they went into foster care. Nobody helped me look after the children…or keep them with me.’ A number of the women reported that they had been able to access accommodation but had been the victims of the Hungarian housing mafia who appeared to scam women out of property. There seemed little or no redress for this in Budapest and these women were ill equipped to access legal support. They then became homeless as a result. Although 45 per cent indicated that they had mental health issues, most of this was simply referred to as depression. There was little or no evidence of mental health diagnoses or psychiatric intervention. Does this in fact mean that the Hungarian women suffered with fewer mental health issues other than depression, or were they just not recognised, picked up or diagnosed – perhaps because of the health system in Hungary? Twenty per cent said that they had either been in prison or had been in trouble with the police. Within the sample of Spanish women rough sleepers the average age was 37.7 years; 68 per cent described themselves as Spanish, 11 per cent as Moroccan, 5 per cent German, 11 per cent Romanian and 5 per cent French (see Figure 6.3). Just under 90 per cent of the women in the sample had children. Just over 37 per cent had experienced violence or abuse within their own families from an early age; 100 per cent had gone on to experience violence from a husband or partner. Some of the women reported that partner abuse was perceived as a normal occurrence and that in the villages, this view prevailed more. The levels and nature of abuse that was reported by Spanish women was severe; for example, being beaten

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Women rough sleepers in Europe Figure 6.3: Spain: ethnicity Morrocan 11%

French 5%

Romainian 11% German n % 5%

Spanish 68%

with belts and sticks, burnt with cigarettes, beaten up while pregnant, being beaten up in front of their children, being handcuffed, sexually abused, forced to have sex (which is, in other words, rape), and being tied to chairs. Of the women, 42.4 per cent had some qualifications or training; this included one woman who had been to university, one who had gained an International Baccalaureate and was also a trained butcher, one who was a trained beautician and a trained secretary; 31.8 per cent had at some time taken or been dependent on drugs and 26.5 per cent on alcohol; 68.9 per cent reported mental health issues, although these were not always diagnosed conditions; 42.2 per cent of the women had not been diagnosed or seen by psychiatric services and merely described themselves as anxious or depressed. The remaining 26.7 per cent had been diagnosed and were taking or had taken medication for depression or anxiety. Thus more than half of the sample who reported mental health issues, had not received medical intervention or a clinical diagnosis. Of the women, 21.2 per cent (four women) reported being in trouble with the police, two of whom had gone to prison for short periods of time, one for possession of drugs, the other for theft; 15.9 per cent (three women) reported that they had at some time engaged in sex work. None of these women reported any abuse relating to that sex work. One woman had been involved in sex work from an early age. Some of the reasons for their homelessness included running away from home and boarding school, being evicted due to non-payment of rent; losing property after the death of relatives, leaving home due to family quarrels, fights or abuse. Women in the Spanish sample reported serious physical and psychological abuse from a partner as well as living long term in unsuitable places such as tents and the roofs of buildings (for safety). Some of the women said that they had made proactive and purposeful decisions to remain on the street because of a lack of accommodation for women with either children or

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Explaining women’s rough sleeping

pets. Of the women, 63.6 per cent reported sleeping rough once; 37.1 per cent reported sleeping rough currently, some of them for very long periods of time. One woman in the sample reported sleeping rough for 11 years and another for three years. Both these women slept in tents. Women described taking refuge in drugs or drink as a way of numbing themselves to both the abuse and their current situation. Some of the women reported that partner abuse was perceived as a normal occurrence and that in the villages, this view prevailed more. Women reported that there was not enough state protection for women – even legally, they felt there were not enough laws in Spain to deal with abuse and this should be strengthened in a statutory way. There were very favourable reports about three particular service providers where women said that they had no complaints with the service, that they had very good experiences and wonderful advice had been given. In the main Spanish women in the sample said that there should be women only services because ‘women who have been abused do not and should not have to be around men at all. They cannot be comfortable in this environment so hostels for both men and women are no good for abused women.’ It appears that 100 per cent of Spanish women rough sleepers only slept rough once, but in fact although this is true, the length of reported rough sleeping appeared to be far in excess of that experienced by UK or Hungarian women. ‘I’m on the river in a tent, for almost ten years.’ ‘I was in the hostel but was robbed and prefer to sleep on the roof where I am now. I have been here for seven years.’ Within the Swedish sample of women rough sleepers, the average age of women interviewed was 47.7 years. In terms of ethnicity, 72 per cent were Swedish, 14 per cent Danish, 7 per cent Indian and 7 per cent Iranian (see Figure 6.4). Of women rough sleepers, 21.4 per cent reported being the victims of family abuse leading to them leaving home; 92.8 per cent were victims of partner abuse leading to homelessness. This is a higher figure than the UK or Hungary. Of the women, 57.1 per cent had children and 35.7 per cent had some qualifications or training. In addition, 64.5 per cent of women rough sleepers in the sample reported that they had abused drugs, while 42.8 per cent had problems with alcohol abuse, and 14.3 per cent mentioned/admitted to sex work.

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Women rough sleepers in Europe Figure 6.4: Sweden: ethnicity Iranian 7%

Indian 7%

Danish 14%

Swedish 72%

‘I have been married three times and all my partners were addicts. The first one beat me regularly, even while sleeping.’ ‘I currently live in a shelter. The worst thing about it is that there is so much alcohol and drug use in the place – both inside and outside – and fights break out. I am not popular in the shelter because I don’t engage with drinking or drugs. In order to avoid being heard and noticed I have to tiptoe around the place…it is a tough environment to live in.’ Women reported extensive stories of long-term abuse endured within intimate relationships with partners or husbands. This abuse involved both physical and mental violence including beatings, being locked in the house, being deliberately ostracised from friends and family and in one case being made to dig her own grave in the cemetery. Women reported that they found life in hostels difficult because of the alcohol and drug cultures that prevailed there and that if they wanted to ‘stay clean’ (drug free) then they would probably be treated as outcasts by other hostel residents. Of the women in the sample, 68.9 per cent reported problems with mental health, much of this associated with long-term trauma but also connected to drug and alcohol abuse. Women reported that there were not enough services in general for women and that the cold and loneliness were the worst factors as well as being the victims of crime and having their few possessions stolen. Many women reported that the reason they became homeless was because they could not afford to pay rent on the accommodation they had been in. Women reported low confidence, low self-esteem, depression, being emotionally drained and feeling insecure and mistrustful. The majority of women in the sample believed there

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Explaining women’s rough sleeping

should be women only services and many commented on the fact that there were huge mixes of people in hostels all with different problems. They also commented that more help was needed from the district administration for women to maintain their own housing. For single women without children they reported that there was not much help available and they felt that their issues were not taken seriously. It was felt by some women that if they had children there would be different forms of help and a better duty of responsibility available. They reported that on the whole they felt they were not treated as a priority and felt neglected. Overall women felt that men had more services available to them than women. One Swedish woman commented that: ‘Each and every person should be able to get the support and assistance they need. Services where there are male and female staff (and not just female staff) and services are customised to the needs of that person and take into account different religions/cultures. It can be daunting to put people from different cultures with people who have suffered different forms of abuse. You should not put drug free people with drug addicts in the same accommodation. A greater variety of services should be available to fit different people’s needs.’ If we are to compare the cohort of women in this study we find that there are similarities in the age of women rough sleepers in the UK and Spain but they are slightly older in Hungary and Sweden (see Figure 6.5). In Hungary this appears to reflect the women’s reports of their homelessness being a result not only of domestic abuse, but also other issues such as husbands deserting them or the death of a partner Figure 6.5: Age of rough sleepers: comparison of all countries 50 40

Hungary 47 UK 33.6

Sweden Swed den 47.7 7

Spain 37.7

30 20 10 0 UK

Spain

Hungary

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Sweden

Women rough sleepers in Europe

and not having economic independence. Added to this the economic situation in Hungary makes it very difficult to find work and thus pay rent or bills. The absence of social housing makes rough sleeping a reality for many women. The numbers of children belonging to women rough sleepers, the existence of partner abuse and mental health issues figure the most significantly for all four countries. This is a critical finding since it demonstrates that there are significant numbers of children affected by this problem with all the attendant issues of education, stability and health, which go along with that. There is also evidence of significant long-term complex mental health problems for women rough sleepers, which clearly requires further attention. However, perhaps the most significant finding is the number of women whose homelessness is directly attributable to partner abuse (see Figure 6.6). The figures here speak for themselves with 100 per cent of Spanish women rough sleepers reporting that they had been abused; 92.8 per cent of Swedish women reported abuse; 70 per cent in the UK and 50 per cent of Hungarian women reporting abuse. Drug and alcohol abuse/dependence are more significant in the UK, while mental health issues are more significant in Spain. Figure 6.6: Types of abuse women rough sleepers have faced: comparison of all countries 100 80 Sweden Swed Sw eden ed en

60 % 40 20 0 Family abuse

Partner abuse UK

Spain

Drug abuse Hungary

Alcohol abuse

Police/Prison

Sweden

Also of significance is the number of times and duration of rough sleeping for the women in the samples. In the UK, Sweden and Hungary the figures for the number of times women slept rough is comparable. This appears to demonstrate that long-term solutions to prevent rough sleeping are not being found, or are not successful for these women and this should perhaps be a focus for those working

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Explaining women’s rough sleeping

with them, since they appear to be returning to the street. In Sweden there is also an issue for some women rough sleepers with long-term entrenched rough sleeping in excess of 10 years for some women. In Spain the situation is somewhat different, with 100 per cent of women rough sleepers reporting only one incidence of rough sleeping. This may demonstrate that the solutions offered to women rough sleepers in Seville are proving successful in preventing returns to rough sleeping, however, a significant number of women rough sleepers are sleeping rough only once but for extended durations, sometimes years. This suggests that there may be an issue here to be addressed in terms of persistent long-term rough sleeping and how this can be tackled. Figure 6.7 demonstrates the number of times women in each country slept rough. Figure 6.7: Number of times of rough sleeping: comparison of all countries

57.1 0.0 52.6 55.0

5 or more

0.0 0.0

3 or more

Sweden 10.5 15.0

Spain Hungary UK

42.9 100.0 36.8 30.0

1 or 2

0.0

20.0

40.0

60.0

80.0

100.0

%

Women’s experience of access to services It is important to note that the women in all the samples were asked to comment upon their experiences of access to services. The comments recorded were both positive and negative; on the whole the most positive comments received reflected appreciation of services that were personalised or tailored to specific women’s needs and requirements; appreciation of staff in agencies who took the time to listen; programmes centring on empowerment, motivational and life skills training and what might be termed ‘hand holding’ assistance

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Women rough sleepers in Europe

regarding appointments with social workers, housing agencies etc. Negative comments reflect, in the main, frustration with agencies who did not believe or who wanted women rough sleepers to prove abuse; lack of female only provision such as hostels, night shelters and crisis accommodation; lack of provision for women with older children or pets and inflexibility of provision. Some of the comments that women made about how they felt about these issues include the following: ‘Coming to the shelter has given me time to think. The staff at the shelter have taken me seriously and I feel I can talk to them about anything and they have helped calm me. The activities have helped me find a way out of both violence and homelessness.’ ‘There should be women only services. There is a huge mix of people all with different problems. We need more apartments. What is difficult is that there are so many people at the shelter all with different needs.’ ‘There are many women who do not know where to go or who to turn to so there needs to be more advertising of services and more information.’

Summary of the women rough sleeper data From this information it is possible to summarise that women rough sleepers in the four countries in the study demonstrated some disparate characteristics, but the similarities between the cohorts was, in fact, far more remarkable. It is possible to say from the information gathered, that the common themes among these women included the fact that they were almost always the product of dysfunctional home lives where they had been abused by family members and then subsequently by partners or husbands. This invariably led to women becoming separated from their children, which was a source of great distress to them. With few exceptions women in these cohorts had only elementary education and more often than not, no formal qualifications or training, making the possibility of supporting themselves through work rather limited. Women in the samples on the whole felt that their stories were not believed, that they constantly had to prove themselves and their situations. Being asked to prove that they had been domestically abused was common and led to these women blaming themselves for

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Explaining women’s rough sleeping

their problems and subsequently internalising them. The majority of these women had extremely low self-esteem and lacked confidence. They did not, as a rule engage with homeless services or outreach teams, preferring to keep their homeless situations a secret or ‘invisible’. They were suspicious of authority, reluctant to ask for help and suffered from extreme guilt and shame with regard to their situations and their rough sleeping. These women were complex in their emotional, mental health, housing, substance abuse and cultural needs and requirements, vulnerable and fearful and particularly ill-equipped to deal with the multiple and complex problems that they experienced. Some comments that reflect these issues include: ‘I do not know what will happen. I have no plans. I am afraid of myself. I might commit suicide. I cannot live on.’ ‘I have never had a life; being homeless, not having anyone to talk to. There are homeless people in this shelter who have university degrees, who used to be teachers. I never thought that at the age of 47 I would end up here.’ Figure 6.8 demonstrates the personal profiles of the women in the samples in terms of these issues. Our conclusions from this evidence are that since the issues faced by woman rough sleepers in the four European counties in this study are in the main so similar, that certain suggestions can be made which Figure 6.8 Background/personal profiles of women rough sleepers: comparison of all countries % 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Children

Qualifications UK

Spain

Mental health issues

Hungary

173

Sweden

Sex work

Women rough sleepers in Europe

may help to tackle the multiple problems these women face. These include the pressing need for early intervention in order to prevent the slide into homelessness for women and to link prevention with the education of young people at a more formative age in order to highlight the shared responsibilities of men and women in forming respectful and appropriate relationships built on mutual trust and where women are not abused by men as a matter of course, either emotionally, psychologically or physically. Added to this, there is a clear need for women to have greater access to crisis care, more flexible housing for them and their children, and more women only accommodation. For women who find themselves in these situations it is important to provide them with motivational, empowering, relationship building and life skills work alongside training, jobs and work placements in order that they can gain confidence and independence. This can also be achieved by giving women greater responsibility and trust. In some cases, agencies have employed women with these histories who have subsequently been able to use their experiences to help others and in the process such women have begun to believe in themselves and their independence. In order to achieve this, women rough sleepers require long-term practical specialist support which takes into account their multiple problems and issues of comorbidity. Above all, they need to be believed and have the opportunity to change their own lives. This can be demonstrated by some of the comments women made to us, for example: ‘I want to do some work…I want to do something for somebody else.’ ‘I want to get a job and get my daughter back.’ ‘The hardest thing is to find a job. Somebody who lives at a homeless shelter won’t get a job. Nobody wants to work with a homeless person or worse with someone who has a criminal record. You shouldn’t admit to not having a home.’ ‘I do not know what I will do in the future. I have not thought about that yet. And I cannot do anything while being homeless. No one would employ me.’

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Explaining women’s rough sleeping

Data from service providers Moving on to the data collected from service providers, each partner aimed to undertake 20 interviews with service providers (SP) and other organisations that worked with women rough sleepers. The breakdown of the types of organisations accessed in each country is demonstrated in Table 6.1. Table 6.1: Types of organisations accessed in each country UK Statutory

40%

Voluntary & community

40%

Business/commercial

15%

Social enterprise

5%

Hungary Statutory

48%

Voluntary & community

47%

NGO

5%

Sweden Statutory

60%

Voluntary & community

15%

NGO

15%

Spain Statutory

66.%

Voluntary & community

20.8%

NGO

13.2%

Reported characteristics of women rough sleepers by service providers Service providers in all the countries in the study were asked to describe the characteristics of the women customers/service users with whom they came into contact. In the UK, service providers reported that the women rough sleepers who accessed their services presented as having experienced domestic abuse or violence and/or family breakdown. They also reported that in the main they were characterised by experiences of substance and alcohol misuse and were either separated from their children or had children in care or

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foster care. They said that these women suffered from health issues generally and, more specifically, mental health issues; they were in the main suspicious of authority including organisations such as homeless service providers and generally appeared to live in fear. UK service providers had experience of working with Eastern European women rough sleepers and said that these women were becoming more frequent users of their services but in our sample, this cohort were unfortunately not represented and clearly this has implications for the validity of this data which cannot be generalised to a wider population. In the Hungarian sample, service providers reported that the women with whom they came into contact had a distinct lack of trust in authority and suffered from emotional, mental health and health issues. Women reported that there was cruelty to one another in shelters and hostels and many women had general problems with rule keeping. They found that these women were afraid to use services and were often involved in prostitution and experienced unwanted pregnancies. In Sweden, service providers reported that the women they dealt with were characterised by substance and alcohol abuse and addiction. They were often involved in crime and suffered from feelings of shame and guilt. They presented as victims of domestic abuse, violence and oppression and as a result lacked self-confidence. They were also separated from their children, had a deep mistrust of authorities, were hard to reach and had experienced unstable lives dating back to childhood. In the Spanish sample, service providers reported that women rough sleepers presenting to them were characterised by experiences of abuse, loneliness, emotional dependence and extreme social exclusion and social difficulties. They often had histories of domestic violence dating back to childhood and were either substance abusers or dependent on drugs. They lacked common support networks, were demographically getting younger in age and in the main appeared to be products of dysfunctional families.

Training specific to working with women rough sleepers We asked service providers if they had undertaken any training specific to working with women rough sleepers. In the UK sample, none of the providers interviewed had received this type of training, however, most service providers had received domestic abuse training and some had rough sleeper training but not specific to women. Most service providers said that they ‘picked it up as they went along’. In the Hungarian sample, 55 per cent of service providers reported receiving social work training, 20 per cent had undertaken training in

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relation to domestic abuse and 25 per cent said that they had received no specific training at all. In Sweden, 85 per cent of service providers interviewed reported that they had received no training specific to women rough sleepers while 15 per cent said that they had undertaken domestic abuse training. Swedish service providers commented that there should be specific training on homelessness, violence, cultural issues, mental health and sexual abuse. In the Spanish sample, 39.6 per cent said that they had received general training; 6.6 per cent gender violence training; 6.6 per cent domestic violence training; and 13.2 per cent said that this type of training was not applicable to their role. In terms of data collection, 100 per cent of service providers in the UK sample collected some form of data on customers as in the main it is required by funders. In the Hungarian sample, 75 per cent of service providers practised informal data collection; 10 per cent formal data collection and 15 per cent said that they had no policies in place to collect data. In Sweden 30 per cent of service providers reported that they collected ‘in house’ data on a formal basis; 10 per cent made what they described as ‘informal notes’; 10 per cent collected no data at all; and 50 per cent said that they were aware of a national survey of the homeless that had been carried out in 2012. In Spain 66 per cent of agencies said that they collected formal data. In terms of the knowledge of the extent of women rough sleepers, in the UK, the majority of service providers had good local knowledge about women rough sleepers but thought that the problem was much bigger than their knowledge extended to. In Hungary there is currently no system of counting rough sleeping at all but felt that the problem was exacerbated by the Hungarian Social Act 2011, which has sought to eliminate colonies of rough sleepers from woods and the streets. Sweden has an annual homeless people count but as many women rough sleepers are not visible service providers felt it was a ‘guessing game’. In Spain, a senior council figure in Malaga commented that: ‘[Knowledge about women rough sleepers] is wholly inadequate; I think that triple or quadruple the number of women suffer discrimination. They are invisible women; they may have addiction problems, they can be victims of domestic violence and about all of this nothing is known.’

Gaps in provision reported by service providers In terms of current gaps in provision for women rough sleepers, UK service providers said that there was a need for more emergency

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accommodation, there are limited women only services and housing for women with complex needs, poor arrangements for women on release from custody and local authority housing strategies do not mention women rough sleepers specifically – perhaps they should. In Hungary, hostels are too expensive; there is cultural dismissal of the abuse of women by the authorities including the police, limited provision for older women and women with children and or pets and no women only night shelters. There is no social housing provision whatsoever in Hungary at the present time. In Sweden, one of the main problems is that there is very limited housing of all types. Added to this there is insufficient street outreach and very few shelters or crisis centres and too few places in existing shelters or crisis centres. In Spain while there are shelters, specific houses and resources that provide information, counselling and legal support, for homeless women who are victims of gender violence in Seville, many service providers reported that more crisis, or emergency accommodation was required. As regards current legislation and guidance: in the UK there is no specific mention of women rough sleepers in existing legislation – it is all generalised under rough sleeping (including the governments ‘No Second Night Out’ policy). In Hungary rough sleeping was until very recently punishable by law under the Hungarian Social Act 2011. Added to this there are no laws that currently protect women from abuse. To access housing or work, Hungarian women require a valid ID. To have an ID they need a legal address. Hungarian service providers do not have any general guidelines but some work to their own protocols. In Sweden, 35 per cent of service providers said that they did not work to specific guidelines; some had internal ethical protocols while in Spain service providers reported that there were equality laws and domestic violence laws but felt that they were not adequate and more legislation was required to protect vulnerable women. Multi-agency working (MAW) appeared to be significant in the UK, but it tends not to be specific to women. There are also numerous forums dealing with homeless issues but again not specific to women. In Hungary service providers are very reluctant to work with the police or other criminal justice agencies. They felt that the courts and police were slow to react to, or intervene in cases of domestic abuse. There was evidence of some cooperation between hostels and night shelters, but no exchange of data between agencies, and often no formal data kept on rough sleeping. In Sweden the majority of service providers (85 per cent) reported that there was ‘some’ MAW. In Spain, service providers reported that a significant amount of MAW went on between the public and private sectors, and between residential resources

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belonging to religious institutions, and other shelters. This MAW has specifically been assisted by the introduction of a coordination committee on prostitution and care resources for women.

Operational and policy suggestions We asked service providers in all samples what operational changes they felt were required – if any. In the UK sample, service providers felt that working with employers to give job opportunities to women rough sleepers was something that required more thought and resources. They also felt more responsive street outreach teams were needed as well as a needs assessment of each women rough sleeper and overall more coordinated approaches with a bigger focus on prevention, equal access to services for men and women, more direct access to hostels and greater central leadership and commitment from government to steer change. In Hungary service providers said that there was a pressing need for psychiatric treatment for women rough sleepers, greater access to specialist treatment and practical help for them and simply more time to talk to women about their problems and needs. In Sweden, service providers recommended earlier intervention for family problems and more staff dedicated to women, with separate accommodation for them and greater collaboration between agencies. They also recommended that more motivational work should be done with women; the development of a template for working with women rough sleepers, less strict admission procedures at shelters and more belief that women had been abused. In Spain service providers recommended that more resources should be made available for work with gender violence and work which has a cultural focus. They felt that greater knowledge was needed about working with women with complex needs and that specific resources should be set aside or ring fenced for working with homeless women. We also asked all the service providers in the samples whether they felt any policy changes in their respective countries were required. In the UK service providers said that there needed to be more funding for women only services and projects; more consultation from the government, who should also realise that more accommodation should be provided for the homeless from existing housing stock. On the whole most service providers also felt that the government were either not aware or did not really care about the effect on rough sleeping of the changes to housing benefits (which were being proposed at the time the research was being undertaken). In Hungary, service providers felt there should be more women only services; more flexibility to

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deal with all types of rough sleeping; reform to the Hungarian Social Act to remove the penalties for rough sleeping and action against the housing mafia. It should be noted that at the time of this research the criminalisation of homelessness was still valid under the Hungarian Social Act; however, although this was subsequently repealed this legislation was then entrenched within the Hungarian Constitution. At the time of going to press, this is still the case in Hungary. In Sweden, service providers recommended that there should be greater cooperation between municipalities; awareness raising and courses throughout society; a more clearly articulated government strategy; and greater tolerance of rough sleepers generally. In Spain they recommended putting specific measures in place for working with women and the incorporation of gender perspectives into Spanish law. Finally we asked service providers why they thought women were falling through the social safety net and to comment on how they could be assisted back into mainstream society. In the UK service providers said that women were falling through the social safety net because of the complexity of their needs and behavioural problems and also because they themselves did not want to engage. They said that they felt there was a lack of understanding of cultural issues within BME, Asian and Eastern European communities together with a lack of visibility and an overall lack of trust of agencies. In Hungary service providers said that cultural problems meant that many women accepted the infliction of violence against them, normalised it and then did not talk about it or report it. They also reported prejudice against women who slept rough as well as inadequate resettlement for women on release from prison. In Sweden service providers commented that women were often not taken seriously or not believed when they reported abuse and thus there was a reluctance to report abuse. In Spain service providers said that there were cultural problems in Spanish society, which results in women being over dependent on men. Added to this they said that in Spanish society, many women perceive domestic abuse as being normal. In terms of recommendations as to how to better reintegrate women who had slept rough back into mainstream society, in the UK, service providers said that agencies need to deal more successfully with their complex needs; providing coordinated services, personalisation and giving them responsibility and trust. They said that women needed empowerment, to feel valued, work placements, to be reconnected with their children, and although many people might not feel that this was important, for those women with pets, they should also be catered for in terms of appropriate accommodation. In Hungary service providers recommended more public information about services for

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women; tackling cultural issues surrounding women’s expectations of only aspiring to being an abused wife or mother; providing education, training and work opportunities to women and also retaining them to work with others coming through the system. In Sweden, service providers recommended taking earlier action; listening to women more and believing that they have been abused; having access to smaller, women only units; reconnecting women with their children; providing longer-term support and secure locations; providing empowerment, motivational and building relationship work, opportunities for jobs, a home and respect and education. In Spain service providers recommended that mental health issues should be tackled more successfully; the introduction of work programmes and personalised services and also said that a cultural shift in thinking in Spanish society needed to happen to make women less dependent on men.

Summary of service provider data Overall, service providers across the four countries in the study shared many characteristics and problems. In general it is possible to say that service providers were well intentioned and committed but uncertain of the extent of the problem with which they are dealing, with regard to women. They were constantly busy trying to secure funding to implement outreach, education, training and rehabilitation programmes and were often working with other agencies/alongside other agencies to facilitate this. However, they appeared to be lacking in specific training relating to women rough sleepers specifically and they also, because of other draws on their time, lacked the time to listen but would like to listen to customers more to provide a more personalised service. They presented overall as people who had to be creative with few resources, frustrated by the lack of funding to improve services and implement projects and professionals who learnt by experience. It seems to us from the research that we have carried out with agencies across four European countries that certain recommendations should be made to assist homeless service providers to undertake the important work that they do. From what they told us in the course of this research there appears to be a number of issues that are of critical importance in ensuring that work specific to women rough sleepers improves. This includes more training for agencies specific to women rough sleepers who are the victims of gender violence; more funding for women only projects and services; more collaboration between agencies; more housing for women only; more knowledge about the work of other agencies and general awareness-raising of the work they do; the

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development of a template for working with women rough sleepers and finally much greater leadership from governments to steer services, to listen to what dedicated staff are telling them and from this, to more clearly articulate government strategies in relation to some of the most vulnerable citizens within our societies. The final chapter highlights the overall major findings of the research, current EU policies in relation homelessness and the key messages this research identifies.

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SEVEN

Challenges and recommendations In Chapter Two, we posited, The ethnographic research that we have carried out across a number of European countries demonstrates to us that while there are some differences in the nature, experience of and response to women’s homelessness across the EU, the similarities in relation to this are more remarkable. In order to learn from this we need to pay more attention to women’s life stories in the context of those individuals and agencies with whom they come into contact so that we can reflect on their meaning in the construction and maintenance of different cultures which are interactively and discursively constructed across a number of dimensions. This information needs to be further analysed so that the homeless archipelago becomes part of a wider and more responsive system. It is our contention that these facts have necessitated both a new theory of women’s homelessness which more directly represents the what, why and how of women’s experiences of becoming, being and recovering from homelessness, and also provides us with a challenge to policy makers to devise and implement policy responses that are not simply generic, but which can be specific to the distinct needs of women rough sleepers. This chapter highlights the findings of the research, current EU policies in relation homelessness and where current gaps in policy lie. It also discusses the key messages emanating from the overall findings of the research. We have said throughout that researching women who sleep rough because of domestic violence is important first because of the limited information available about rough sleeping and the fact that this data tends to focus on the problem as experienced by men, as opposed to women. Second, the hidden nature of women’s homelessness can often result in their needs being overlooked. Many homeless women spend time living with friends or relatives, often with periods of sleeping rough in between. Third, previous research has shown that women do not appear to access homeless services. This may either be due to a lack

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of awareness of the services available to them, or due to a lack of suitable provision. Added to the problem of the lack of detailed and realistic information about homelessness in general across Europe, this problem is more acute in the case of women’s homelessness because a very small proportion engage with street outreach teams. Many become homeless to escape violence from a partner or someone they know. The research that has been carried out into homelessness on an international level really only focuses on the problem as experienced by men. However, what little information exists about women’s homelessness indicates that there are differences between the female and male rough sleeping populations, which raises a strong case for further research in this area to highlight women’s support needs specifically. This research is crucial because rough sleeping is a major issue across European countries and is especially problematic within the current economic climate. When we embarked upon this two-year study, our preliminary research into the prevalence of rough sleeping demonstrated that there were consistently high numbers within the target group in different countries. In relation to the commonality of problems that are experienced across these European countries it is possible to say the following. In the UK, Sweden and in Spain research has identified that homeless women and women rough sleepers have a very low visible presence. This appears to be as a result of women hiding their situations more than men due to fears over personal safety and also because of their mistrust of services due to past experiences. The diversity of women rough sleepers identified in the UK by Cahill (2009) – and which established that this group can include all types of women, including professionals – is also mirrored across Europe. This diversity within the target group is also constantly changing, and can include immigrant groups (especially those with specific problems), sex workers, and women in unstable jobs. There is fluidity to the target group therefore which is not always taken into account currently by agencies. Problems of co-morbidity are also common to women rough sleepers across Europe. Within the UK, research by the University of Wolverhampton (2009) has demonstrated the special vulnerability of these women, which arises from family conflict: 40 per cent presenting as victims of physical/sexual abuse and 22 per cent having been in custody. These problems are again mirrored across Europe. For example, our partners in Sweden reported that from their annual mapping of homeless people in Malmö, in 2009, 860 people were homeless, of which 231 were women. Sixty-six women were mothers of children younger than 18 years and 25 women were homeless due to domestic violence, 50 women were reported as having addiction problems, 24 as

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Challenges and recommendations

having mental problems and 26 women were reported as having both addiction and mental health problems (referred to as ‘dual diagnoses’). According to results from research done in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö in 2005 as a part of a national project to mobilise against drugs, there is reason to consider every homeless woman with addiction problems as a victim of partner violence and entitled to protection and special care. So what can we say in summary about the research findings from this project?

Overall findings from interviews with service providers Overall, service providers across the four countries in the study shared many characteristics and problems. In general it is possible to say that service providers within our samples were well intentioned and committed but uncertain of the extent of the problem they are dealing with, with regard to women. Much of their time was taken up trying to secure funding to implement outreach, education, training and rehabilitation programmes. They were working in the main with other agencies or alongside other agencies, but they were lacking in specific training relating to women rough sleepers and lacking the time to listen to customers more to provide a more personalised service. They appeared to be creative with few resources, in the main they were individuals who learnt by experience and were generally frustrated by the lack of funding to improve services and implement projects. They indicated to us through these interviews that they required more training specific to women rough sleepers who are the victims of gender violence and more funding for women only projects and services. They were very clear that governments needed to listen more; that their strategies needed to be much more clearly articulated; and that there should be greater consultation from government as well as better central leadership to steer services. They also reported that more collaboration was needed between agencies; there was a pressing need to work with employers to provide job opportunities and that overall there should simply be more housing for women, more responsive street outreach for women and more awareness raising of this problem itself and also of the work that homeless providers working with women already did.

Overall findings from the Interviews with women rough sleepers In terms of the overall findings from the data gathered from the women rough sleepers themselves, this group were very hard to reach and

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we are extremely grateful to all the service providers who put us in touch with women and to the women themselves who were so open and honest with us in telling us their stories. As we said in an earlier chapter, it was important to adopt a broad definition of the concept of homelessness/rooflessness to reflect the specific experiences of women and although all the samples in the study were random, it is important to point out that we cannot generalise these findings to a wider population. To summarise the finding from this data, we take each country in turn. In the UK sample of women rough sleepers the average age of the women in the study was just under 34 years; the majority were British Caucasian. Obviously because of the hard to reach nature of this group we could not choose whom to interview. The sample was entirely random, but it is fair to say that within the West Midlands, it does not reflect other cultures or communities that are involved in rough sleeping – the white eastern European community is one such and this needs to be borne in mind therefore. Sixty-five per cent of women rough sleepers had children but the majority were not living with them but did wish to be reconnected. Children had been taken away shortly after birth, put into care, fostered or adopted. This was a source of great distress to the women that were interviewed. ‘The worst thing about sleeping rough was…leaving the kids.’ Of the women interviewed, 70 per cent had experienced abuse from a partner(s), all of whom reported that this was what led them ultimately to become homeless; 40 per cent of women rough sleepers said that they had also experienced abuse within the family home before this. ‘My partner physically abused me and I decided to leave him and the children. I didn’t see them again until they were teenagers.’ ‘My husband broke my ribs, tore my hair out, perforated my ear drum and head butted me. Eventually I reported him and he was sent to prison; I have a permanent nonmolestation order against him.’ Forty-five per cent of women rough sleepers reported having mental health issues.

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‘Even now I still suffer from depression because of the sleeping rough and the sexual abuse and stuff…I self-harm and have done drugs…so I’ve damaged myself really.’ ‘I’ve been in hospital for attempted suicide…and I’m on medication for depression.’ Admissions of sex work were relatively low – this may be due to underreporting or stigma surrounding this. Drug and alcohol abuse were also fairly significant, 50 per cent and 55 per cent respectively. Forty per cent of women rough sleepers reported being abused previously within inter familial situations and almost half the sample reported sleeping rough more than five times. Within our Hungarian sample the average age of Hungarian women rough sleepers was higher than UK women rough sleepers at 47 years; their ethnicity was mainly white eastern European but the sample also included a small proportion of Romanian women. Both the women and the service providers reported that there were cultural problems for Romanies who felt (and indeed were) the subject of stigma and racial abuse. The prevalence of these within the sample may also be underrepresented as with the Eastern European and other cultures in the UK sample. Seventy-five per cent of the women in the sample had children – a slightly higher proportion than the UK. ‘I had a daughter. She was taken to a foster home.’ ‘My husband left and my children went into state care from age of 12 as I fell ill and could not look after them…then they went into foster care. Nobody helped me look after the children…or keep them with me.’ Of Hungarian women rough sleepers 50 per cent reported partner abuse – 20 per cent less than is reported in the UK and 30 per cent reported family abuse. A significant number of women reported that it was not necessarily abuse that led their to being homeless, but sometimes husbands walking out on them or losing their jobs, which then resulted in their becoming homeless since they could not pay rent or bills and there is no social housing in Hungary. ‘The main reason [for my homelessness] was that I lost my job. If one loses their job they cannot pay their bills, cannot eat and so on.’

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‘I was raised in state care. I lived in a group home for three years and then I was placed with a foster family. I stayed with the foster family until I was about 20 then I left. I don’t want to say why. I have been homeless ever since.’ ‘We lived in my husband’s house. He used to beat me up so bad. Once he even tried to stab me. I tried getting help from the police, but they told me they would not intervene unless there was blood. They did not even write down my complaint.’ Of women rough sleepers, 45 per cent reported mental health issues – which is the same figure as the UK. ‘I am declared unable to work on the basis of my schizophrenia, I have to take medicine regularly, I have to get an injection every 14 days. My illness began following the death of my husband in 2003; after this I became homeless.’ An interesting feature was that there was much less drug and alcohol abuse or dependence reported by the Hungarian women – at just 5 per cent and 10 per cent, and no reports of sex work. Just over half reported sleeping rough more than five times. In the Spanish sample, the average age of Spanish women rough sleepers was just under 38 years. Just over 68 per cent described themselves as Spanish but other nationalities were represented in the sample. Just under 90 per cent of the women rough sleepers in the sample had children – a much greater number than either the UK or Hungary. One hundred per cent reported that they had experienced partner abuse and 36.8 per cent reported family abuse. ‘In the villages the men hit women…it’s like a very normal thing.’ ‘I have raised five children, I have worked hard since I was small but my husband, beat me, abused me physically, psychologically, everything. I had to be obedient and if I was I did not get beaten.’ Just under 74 per cent reported mental health issues (as compared with 45 per cent in the UK and Hungary).

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Challenges and recommendations

‘I take refuge in drugs.’ It appears from the data that 100 per cent of Spanish women rough sleepers only slept rough once but in fact although this is true, the length of reported rough sleeping appeared to be far in excess of that experienced by UK or Hungarian women. ‘I’m on the river in a tent, for almost ten years.’ ‘I was in the hostel but was robbed and prefer to sleep on the roof where I am now. I have been here for seven years.’ In the Swedish sample we established in the previous chapter that just over 21 per cent reported had experienced abuse within the family, causing them to leave home and over 92 per cent experienced partner abuse. A significant number in this sample also reported alcohol and substance abuse. ‘I did not start taking drugs until I was 22 years of age. I started drinking from the age of 18. I suffer from back problems from violence suffered. Overall my health is average. Teeth are pretty bad. I have kidney stones and suffer from anxiety but have no access to treatment for this or to a counsellor either. I tried making contact with the Malmö drug treatment services but nothing came of this. I was able to get a place in a shelter and access to money from welfare office. I asked for help from social services and welfare but they did not even ask me what my needs were.’ Of women rough sleepers, 57.1 per cent in this sample reported sleeping rough more than five times. There are also women in the sample who were long-term rough sleepers and reported being on the street for up to 16 years. This may be a result of the fact that providers in Sweden reported that one of the main problems was that there were too few places in existing shelters for women.

Comparative analysis of women rough sleeper samples In terms of overall comparisons between the samples in the study, the following observations can broadly be made. There are similarities in the age of women rough sleepers in the UK and Spain, but the women rough sleepers are slightly older in Hungary and Sweden. In Hungary

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this appeared to reflect the women’s reports of their homelessness being a result not only of domestic abuse, but also other issues such as husbands deserting them or the death of a partner and not having economic independence. Added to this the economic situation in Hungary makes it very difficult to find work and thus pay rent or bills. The absence of social housing makes rough sleeping a reality for many women. The numbers of children belonging to women rough sleepers, the existence of partner abuse and mental health issues figure the most significantly for all three countries. This is a critical finding since it demonstrates just how many children are affected by this problem with all the attendant issues of education, stability and health, which go along with that, and the significance of the problem of long-term complex mental health problems for women rough sleepers which clearly requires further attention. One of the most significant findings was the number of women whose homelessness was directly attributable to partner abuse. The figures here speak for themselves with 100 per cent of Spanish women rough sleepers reporting that they had been abused; 92.8 per cent of Swedish women reported abuse; 70 per cent in the UK and 50 per cent of Hungarian women reporting abuse. Drug and alcohol abuse or dependence were more significant in the UK, while mental health issues were more significant in Spain.

Summary From this information it is possible to summarise that the woman rough sleeper is usually separated from her children and is the product of a dysfunctional home life where she was abused by family members and by her partner(s). She is usually someone with an elementary education and no qualifications or training. On a personal level we found that the women in our samples were not believed; added to this, the majority blamed themselves for their problems and internalised them leading to other problems such as low self-esteem and confidence. On the whole women in our samples did not engage with services or with outreach and were generally suspicious of authority. Reluctant to ask for help, suffering from guilt and shame, hard to reach, vulnerable and fearful, these women were complex in their emotional, mental health, housing, substance abuse and cultural needs and overall ill-equipped to deal with the problems that they were experiencing. As a result of these findings, we would say that generally speaking women who sleep rough or are homeless or roofless require certain basic interventions which include early intervention, prevention, and education as well as flexible access to crisis care and housing for

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children or women only. They appear to be in need of motivational, empowerment and relationship building life skills work as well as the chance to rekindle their education leading to greater possibilities of independence through jobs and work placements. The women in this research demonstrated that they rose to the challenge of being given responsibility and trust if it was offered and many wanted to use their experiences to help others. Women in the samples required long-term practical specialist support and above all needed to be believed that they had been abused, and to feel valued, to be heard, and to be empowered. ‘I want to do some work…I want to do something for somebody else.’ ‘I want to get a job and get my daughter back.’ ‘The hardest thing is to find a job. Somebody who lives at a homeless shelter won’t get a job. Nobody wants to work with a homeless person or worse with someone who has a criminal record. You shouldn’t admit to not having a home.’ ‘I want to get clean (from drugs) and get my own apartment where I can feel safe and secure, have peace and quiet. I would like to make contact with my children.’

The European Union In November 2012, the women rough sleepers research team held their final conference in Brussels in the European Parliament. We were delighted that Hungarian MEP, Mrs Kinga Göncz, lent her support to this event. The final conference showcased the projects research findings and debated possible policy responses to women rough sleepers who suffer violence. The research team met European Commission policy makers and national government ministers in order to share information across Europe on the subject of women rough sleepers to develop future activities in this important area of research. This work is important therefore in feeding into national and international policy development and in securing possible further funding opportunities in the future. This relationship with the European Commission is of the utmost importance since the issue of homelessness is firmly on the European Union agenda. An International Violence Against Women Day already takes place annually in Brussels and two important organisations involved in EU policies in relation to homelessness – FEANTSA and

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HABITACT – jointly hosted a highly successful European conference at the Committee of the Regions in Brussels in July 2012. It was of crucial importance that the findings of this important research were highlighted to the European Commission. Although homelessness is clearly on their agenda, much more needs to be done and these links with Europe will help to ensure that the findings will influence and inform the social inclusion policies of member states. One of the major proponents of more effective work with and solutions for homeless women is Brussels based organisation FEANTSA. This is the European Federation of National Organisations working with the homeless, which was established in 1989 as a European non-governmental organisation to prevent and alleviate the poverty and social exclusion of people threatened by or living in homelessness. According to their website: FEANTSA currently has more than 130 member organisations, working in close to 30 European countries, including 25 EU Member States. Most of FEANTSA’s members are national or regional umbrella organisations of service providers that support homeless people with a wide range of services, including housing, health, employment and social support. They often work in close co-operation with public authorities, social housing providers and other relevant actors. FEANTSA works closely with the EU institutions, and has consultative status at the Council of Europe and the United Nations. It receives financial support from the European Commission. FEANTSA is committed to engaging in constant dialogue with the European institutions and national and regional governments to promote the development and implementation of effective measures to fight homelessness; conducting and disseminating research and data collection to promote better understanding of the nature, extent, causes of, and solutions to, homelessness; promoting and facilitating the exchange of information, experience and good practice between FEANTSA’s member organisations and relevant stakeholders with a view to improve policies and practices addressing homelessness and raising public awareness about the complexity of homelessness and the multidimensional nature of the problems faced by homeless people.

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FEANTSA has its own policy statement on homelessness and domestic violence and aside from the work that this organisations does itself in relation to all aspects of homelessness across Europe, it is also extremely supportive of the work that other researchers and organisations do within this field. They welcome increasing awareness and political will at a Pan European level to tackle violence against women and are constantly raising awareness that gender related violence remains a reality in all European Member States and affects societies as a whole. According to their policy statement (2007) they feel that gender related violence ‘stems from persisting unequal power relations leading to inequality between women and men, discrimination against women and the violation of their fundamental rights’. While acknowledging that further gender specific research in the area of homelessness is needed, they comment ‘punctual surveys and studies in different countries show that a high proportion of homeless women have experienced gender based violence and abuse, including during childhood’ (see also Reeve et al, 2007). FEANTSA has long argued that to eradicate violence against women, there should be more policy coordination, coherence and consistency at European Union and Member State level and that other policy areas are and should be involved, for example, fundamental rights, anti-discrimination, public health, education, research, migration, employment, social affairs and housing. They have also commented (2002) that: In this context, when designing key actions in the framework of the new strategy, we feel that would be important to take into account both structural imbalances and inequalities and the specific vulnerability of some groups of the population, including homeless women, women with a migration/ ethnic minority background (including undocumented), women who have been faced with violence and abuse at an early stage of their lives, etc. Nor should the scale of the problem be underestimated. Although data collection in this area is still developing in many countries, the statistics that are available paint a frightening picture. An overview suggests that across countries, one-fifth to one-quarter of all women have experienced physical violence at least once during their adult lives, and more than one-tenth have suffered sexual violence involving the use of force. Significant numbers of women suffer domestic abuse, defined as a pattern of repeated physical, emotional and sexual abuse that risks or causes fear, distress, and very often

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health damage. Secondary data analyses now under way in several countries support an estimate that about 12 per cent to 15 per cent of all women have been in a relationship of domestic abuse after the age of 16. Rates of physical and sexual violence by former partners after separation are substantially higher, indicating that the protection of women is not secured when they end an abusive relationship. In a recent open letter to the EU Commissioner, FEANTSA, Eurodiaconia, SMES Europa, Mental Health Europe, the International Network of Street Papers and Habitat for Humanity International, made a number of recommendations. These included the need to develop an action plan or strategy to support better progress on tackling homelessness including detailed policy guidance on homelessness. Within the context of the social investment package (SIP) they recommended that this should include a concrete and detailed roadmap for the implementation of an EU homelessness strategy with thematic priorities. These organisations feel that an agreed strategy would help Member States and other stakeholders in their efforts to combat homelessness through the promotion of transnational exchanges, training and research, progress monitoring and the provision of policy guidance, as well as financing social experimentation and facilitating access to the Structural Funds. They also recommended a detailed strategy for tackling this across Europe to inform policy guidance to align with the Report of the High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda and the message to ‘leave no one behind’ and finally acknowledgment of the relevance of other UN policies which can support these aims such as the Millennium Development Goals Report 2013 to achieve  gender equality and universal primary education. Specifically they commented (FEANTSA, 2013b, 3) that: Homelessness is an urgent problem that we cannot tolerate in the European Union. It is currently increasing in virtually all EU Member States. The demand for support from the EU, which is about knowledge and expertise as much as it is about funding, comes from public authorities, EU institutions and NGOs. A comprehensive EU strategy on homelessness addressing its socio-economic, health, and human rights dimensions is necessary to respond adequately to these calls for support. The undersigned organisations therefore call on the European Commission to develop

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such a strategy in order to help Member States make real progress on confronting homelessness by 2020. Recently FEANTSA also produced the European Report On the way home (2014) which focuses on homelessness and homeless policies in Europe and analyses policy progress in tackling homelessness over recent years. In particular it focuses on the extent and nature of homelessness in EU Member States. This monitoring report is important because it constitutes a first attempt at reporting on the evolution of homeless policies from a European perspective. The key findings within this report include recommendations about the extent of homelessness, which remains a problem in all Member States and has increased in the last five years in 15 Member States. In some instances, they note that this increase is closely linked to the financial and economic crisis, but it is also significant that homelessness has decreased in the Netherlands, Finland and Scotland as a result of integrated homelessness strategies. The report also focuses on profiles of homeless people, demonstrating that these are changing in Europe, with increasing proportions of homeless women, families, migrants and young people, in many cases as a result of the ongoing economic crises across Europe. The report also draws attention to several calls at EU-level for integrated homelessness strategies; as a result of this a number of Member States have in fact developed integrated homelessness strategies to reduce homelessness over the long term. The report also comments on the fact that there is considerable variation in the extent to which homeless policies are evidence-based in Europe. Some countries have strong data collection systems that play a clear role in strategic planning and monitoring. Others have data that is insufficient for the purposes of strategic planning to end homelessness. However, FEANTSA are clear that there is what they call ‘a well-developed body of knowledge at EU level about the type of data required and how this can be collected’. In terms of housing led approaches and targeted prevention the report indicates that these have emerged as key priorities in making sustained progress on homelessness and importantly that they reflect a shift towards what FEANTSA calls the ‘normalisation’ of the living conditions of people experiencing homelessness. They add that ‘some countries such as Finland, Denmark, and Scotland have developed housing-led homelessness strategies where immediate access to housing with support where needed is becoming the dominant response to homelessness’. In relation to the quality of homeless services, the report comments that:

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Analysis of staffing levels and room occupancy in residential homeless services shows that there is great diversity in the quality of homeless services – with conditions ranging from overcrowded dormitories to single rooms in shelter and hostel accommodation. The extent to which homeless people receive individual care from qualified social workers also varies considerably. Policies orientated towards ending homelessness increasingly require quality frameworks, which support ending situations of homelessness rather than managing homelessness. This requires the development of innovative outcome measurement tools. There are several examples of such tools that have been developed in Europe but further progress is required. Finally but what is important, the report also draws attention to what FEANTSA calls ‘coercive policy approaches’. We have already mentioned in Chapters Two and Three that there is a propensity in some European countries to criminalise both homelessness and poverty. We indicated that this is being achieved in different ways both overtly – as in Hungary – and more covertly, in the UK. FEANTSA’s report also acknowledges that moves to criminalise homeless people or to ‘use enforcement measures to control their use of public space’ are being used. They tactfully suggest that this reflects a failure of homeless policy to offer acceptable alternatives to homelessness and that ‘coercive approaches represent a high-risk strategy and can have negative outcomes for homeless people’.

Concluding recommendations The key findings of this research in many ways mirror those statements and recommendations made by one of the most well-regarded and respected organisations in Europe with regard to the homeless women victims of violence that we encountered in the course of this two year study. As a result we would suggest the following recommendations could be made specifically in relation to the problem of women’s homelessness. First, there needs to be greater awareness raising of the specific problem of women’s rough sleeping and the danger of violence that they face across the EU and greater acceptance by policy makers that this is a growing problem, particularly in the current economic climate. There is also a need to work towards the changing of perceptions and values across the EU in relation to removing the negative stigmas of homelessness for women and specifically to

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work towards reducing the opportunities for women to be classed as commodities or as the easy targets of intimidation, domination, insults and sexual violence in societies which act out of the principles of hierarchy and exploitation. There is a need for more preventive education and thus empowerment of women who are increasingly at risk of homelessness, either through domestic abuse, statelessness, migration or running away which should include the education of boys and girls in relation to safe and appropriate relationships, trust and respect. This should acknowledge the fact that it is not solely women’s responsibility to reduce the violence against them, but also that of men and boys through education and role models. Added to this, more data and evidence needs to be collected specifically on the extent of women’s homelessness and their experience of violence and on the effectiveness of responses to it, empowerment strategies, training and counselling, with a corresponding need for greater coherence of policies, more effective MAW and the sharing of best practice at a PanEuropean level. There is a need for greater political commitment across Europe to acknowledging the links between poverty, social exclusion and resultant homelessness, which can occur in many different forms, depending on the country in question and that the current economic crises across Europe are exacerbating these trends. What we have also found in the course of conducting this research and subsequent research that we continue to be involved with in relation to women’s homelessness across the European Union, is that most of the existing research and recommendations are generic; that is, not female specific. In the light of this our suggestions would be that governments needs to help to raise awareness and public acknowledgement about the problem of women who sleep rough as a result of domestic violence. Greater acknowledgement of gender perspectives within policy and law is required to reflect the distinct issue of women’s homelessness and domestic violence and how this can be approached including funding for structural solutions to address homeless women’s complex needs such as greater access to substance abuse treatment, long-term recovery support for mental health issues and enhanced employment and educational opportunities. More training for service providers that specifically equip them to work with women rough sleepers who are the victims of abuse is also required as well as a need for greater emphasis on female only services including refuges, hostels, health services and support groups which are specifically tailored to address women’s needs in relation to domestic violence, access to children and more flexible access to housing. Additionally an emphasis on triggers and treatment; that is – more of a focus on early intervention, prevention

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and education during childhood and early adulthood – is needed to prevent homelessness as an emergency route out of violent homes, unstable relationships and ensuing health problems. How could these recommendations be implemented, however? There are, we feel some possibilities for this which include the incorporation of gender perspectives within policy and law to reflect the differences in addressing homelessness as a result of domestic abuse; the acknowledgment of the specific needs and complexities of the provision required for women rough sleepers by policy makers as well as acknowledgement of the complexities of women’s needs which in our opinion should be evidenced in legislation and housing strategies for example. Personalised services for women with complex needs should be a priority as well as bespoke training for service providers specific to working with women rough sleepers who are the victims of abuse. There needs to be more flexibility in housing options to account for women who may have older children and pets and earlier intervention in education for homelessness, abuse, gender violence and substance misuse. More public information should be available about services – we acknowledge that this is difficult especially when agencies are at the same time trying to preserve the anonymity of their customers and locations but like many of these recommendations, the key appears to be on the implementation of creative solutions to empower women through MAW and the sharing and dissemination of information and best practice. Our most recent research in the field of women’s homelessness is a follow-on phase II to the study that we have described within this book. During the course of this two-year study we have sought to build on what we learnt from this project. For us – having worked with many women who have found themselves homeless for various reasons across Europe – two issues stand out the most. The first is the need for women to be empowered in order to avoid homelessness in the first instance but also to be able to cope with the subsequently difficult situations they find themselves in as a result of homelessness. Reflecting on this brought to mind a quotation from the late Christopher Hitchens: ‘The cure for poverty has a name in fact; it is called the empowerment of women.’ Second – and a point which we have mentioned in earlier chapters but which merits a final mention – the emotional investment employed in adopting this sort of qualitative, ethnographic story-telling approach to research can sometimes be obscured by a focus on analysis and outcomes. As Jewkes (2012) rightly points out however, this misses the depth of understanding that can be gained from a more detailed discussion about the process of doing that research and the emotional

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investment involved in those personal encounters that affect your methodological and theoretical ideologies. We have endeavoured not simply to bring to you the process of carrying out that research and the results of it, but also to share with you the fact that as a researcher you become engaged in a symbolic interaction in which you must interpret actions, provide rich descriptions and from this, develop a theory which incorporates concepts of what Schwandt (1994, 124) calls ‘self, language, social setting and social object’. The emotional effect of undertaking this research was something we could not prepare for but is one that we hope is reflected appropriately in the findings.

Key messages The key messages from this research, through our interviews with women rough sleepers and organisations working in the field are crucial since with the exception of Edgar and Doherty (2001), this is the only study that has so far looked in depth at the issue of homeless women’s experiences across a number of European countries. The key messages from this research relate to the following areas: Characteristics and profiles Although many of the women had well-rehearsed characteristics, and profiles knowledge of the nature and extent of this problem still remains elusive in the three EU countries in the study. Profiles of homeless women who experience violence need to be better understood, as do the changing profiles of women coming into this situation as immigrants and as the victims of trafficking. Knowledge and evidence base This needs to be improved and strengthened as our findings demonstrates that the majority of service providers still do not have a clear picture of the extent of the issue of women rough sleepers who are experiencing violence and in spite of what FEANTSA describes as the ‘well developed body of knowledge at EU level about the type of data required and how this can be collected’ there is still not enough data or general knowledge about the types of women who present with experiences of violence and how best to assist them.

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Prevention and education Quite rightly there will be those who posit the view that women’s experience of violence is not necessarily of their own making and therefore is not entirely their responsibility to resolve. The research team conducting this study are in agreement that this social problem is not solely the responsibility of women, but also that of boys and men who should be educated as a preventive measure, alongside girls and women in issue of gender equality, respect and safe appropriate relationships. It is not our intention to place the responsibility for solving this at the feet of women but to make recommendations for a more holistic approach to this involving all. Housing and its quality There is a distinct lack of accommodation for homeless women victims of violence and that accommodation in mixed shelters, for example, is not appropriate. The quality and nature of accommodation offered to such women needs to be thought through by policy makers before further welfare reforms disproportionately penalise some of the most vulnerable people in our societies. The criminalisation of poverty and homelessness We have indicated that a further issue is the failure of homeless policies and in some instances – for example that of Hungary – this has gone much further unfortunately, where being homeless is currently illegal as entrenched within the Hungarian constitution. However, although Hungary’s approach to this social issue has had some attention, make no mistake that there are similarities in the two other countries I this study. In the UK, begging is technically outlawed under the Vagrancy Act 1824 and now also the Anti-Social Behaviour Crime and Policing Act 2014. Arrest for begging is often used by UK police to clear the streets of homeless people whether they are actually begging or not. This is not, therefore a problem that is unique only to countries such as Hungary. As a result we would reiterate the following recommendations: There needs to be greater awareness raising of the specific problem of women’s rough sleeping and the danger of violence that they face across the EU and greater acceptance by policy makers that this is a growing problem, particularly in the current economic climate.

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There is a need to work towards the changing of perceptions and values across the EU in relation to removing the negative stigmas of homelessness for women and specifically to work towards reducing the opportunities for women to be classed as commodities or as the easy targets of intimidation, domination, insults and sexual violence in societies which act out of the principles of hierarchy and exploitation. There is a need for more preventive education and thus empowerment of women who are increasingly at risk of homelessness, either through domestic abuse, statelessness, migration or running away which should include the education of boys and girls in relation to safe and appropriate relationships, trust and respect. This should acknowledge the fact that it is not solely women’s responsibility to reduce the violence against them, but also that of men and boys through education and role models. More data and evidence needs to be collected specifically on the extent of women’s homelessness and their experience of violence and on the effectiveness of responses to it, empowerment strategies, training and counselling, with a corresponding need for greater coherence of policies, more effective MAW and the sharing of best practice at a Pan-European level. There is a need for greater political commitment across Europe to acknowledging the links between poverty, social exclusion and resultant homelessness, which can occur in many different forms, depending on the country in question and that the current economic crises across Europe are exacerbating these trends.

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APPENDIX

Research instruments used in the study

Daphne III Women Rough Sleepers Research Interview Schedule A Key Infor mants (Service Organisations/Agencies/ Providers)

Preamble Our organisation [identify] has been funded to carry out research in several European countries into the problem of women who sleep rough and have experienced domestic violence [or insert your preferred definition]. As part of this research, we are interested in hearing about the experiences of key stakeholders regarding their work or other contact with women who sleep, or have slept rough in relation to a range of issues. You have been identified as someone whose views would be of value in this work, so we would like to invite you to take part in an interview. We are interested in your views on the complexity of the issue, the solutions to this problem and on the relevance of social policy, health and welfare policies in all the jurisdictions which are taking part in this study. Everything you tell us can be said in complete confidence. Your views will not be passed on to any third party and any comments you make will be completely anonymised in the final report and under no circumstances could be attributed to you. Do you agree for the interview to be tape-recorded? Yes

 No 

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For the purposes of this research, we have agreed the following definitions for the concepts that are crucial to this study. These are as follows: HOUSELESSNESS/HOMELESSNESS • Women in refuges, shelters or other ad hoc or temporary accommodation • Women who remain in accommodation but are in an abusive situation • Women who do not have a private/safe place for social relations • Women who do not have legal title/exclusive possession to a safe home whether temporary or not • Women who are excluded socially or legally but not necessarily physically • Women in ‘roving’ accommodation. ROOFLESSNESS • Sleeping or bedded down in the open air (streets, doorways, parks, bus shelters etc) • Staying or sleeping in a place not designed for regular sleeping accommodation for human beings/human habitation • Not having a registered address • European ETHOS typology ‘triple exclusion’ ie: social/legal/ physical • Women in ‘roving’ accommodation DOMESTIC VIOLENCE/ABUSE; INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE/ABUSE; GENDER BASED VIOLENCE/ABUSE • Partners may decide to use whatever terminology they feel is most appropriate VIOLENCE/ABUSE • Physical, social, psychological, honour related, sexual, economic, financial. INTIMATE PARTNER/GENDER BASED • Occurring within a family • Inter familial – that is, occurring within a group of peers or within a family type situation • Within an intimate partner context

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A. Background Information Name of interviewee....................................................................... Job title............................................................................................ Name of agency represented............................................................ Name of interviewer........................................................................ Date and time of interview.............................................................. B. Key Informant Research Questions 1. What is the role of your agency in relation to women who sleep rough and what is your role within that agency? (Prompt: terms of reference, point of contact with clients) 2. What are the characteristics of your service users (ie: the WRS)? 3. Does your agency collect and/or collate any data in relation to rough sleeping and/or domestic violence cases? (Prompt: Do you think this is sufficient or should other data be gathered?) 4. Do you think there is adequate knowledge currently about the problem of rough sleeping for women? If not, how can levels of knowledge be improved? 5. Do you know what the extent of the problem of rough sleeping for women is in the location in which you operate? (Prompt: any information on numbers and fluctuations in numbers) 6. What services are currently provided for women who sleep rough and are exposed to violence in your location? What, if any, are the gaps in this service provision? Do these services offer protection from violence? 7. Are you aware of any existing legislation or other policies specific to women rough sleepers? Are these adequate in dealing with the needs of this group? 8. What local strategies are currently employed in relation to WRS? Are these strategies helpful/unhelpful? Are there common strategies across your area or do they tend to be disparate? 9. Do you work to any professional guidelines? 10. a) Have you received any training in relation to the issue of rough sleeping or domestic violence issues? (Prompt: you can refer to your preferred definitions of concepts here if you wish)

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b) Was it sufficient or not? c) If not, what other training do you believe is appropriate? 11. What sort of multi-agency working goes on in relation to WRS – if any? 12. Are you aware of any proposed actions for preventive measures in relation to WRS? 13. Can you highlight any examples of ‘good practice’ in terms of working with WRS? 14. What operational changes would you like to see in relation to the problem of dealing with WRS? 15. What policy changes would you like to see in relation to the issue of dealing with WRS? 16. Do you think that women are falling through the social safety net? If so, how and why is this happening? 17. What factors do you think are crucial in the success of bringing WRS back into mainstream society? 18. Are there any other issues you would like to raise which might help us with this research? Thank you very much for your time.

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Daphne III Women Rough Sleepers Research Interview Schedule B Women Rough Sleepers

Preamble Our organisation [identify] has been funded to carry out research in several European countries into the problem of women who sleep rough. As part of this research, we are interested in hearing about the experiences of women who sleep, or have slept rough in relation to a range of issues. You have been identified as someone whose views would be of value in this work, so we would like to invite you to take part in an interview. We are interested in your experience of sleeping rough and the reasons for it. Your views will help people to understand this problem better and may help to improve the way it is dealt with and the help that is available. Everything you tell us can be said in complete confidence. Your views will not be passed on to any third party and any comments you make will be completely anonymised in the final report and under no circumstances could be attributed to you. Do you agree for the interview to be tape-recorded? Yes

 No 

For the purposes of this research, we have agreed the following definitions for the concepts that are crucial to this study. These are as follows: HOUSELESSNESS/HOMELESSNESS • Women in refuges, shelters or other ad hoc or temporary accommodation • Women who remain in accommodation but are in an abusive situation • Women who do not have a private/safe place for social relations • Women who do not have legal title/exclusive possession to a safe home whether temporary or not

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• Women who are excluded socially or legally but not necessarily physically • Women in ‘roving’ accommodation. ROOFLESSNESS • Sleeping or bedded down in the open air (streets, doorways, parks, bus shelters etc) • Staying or sleeping in a place not designed for regular sleeping accommodation for human beings/human habitation • Not having a registered address • European ETHOS typology ‘triple exclusion’ ie: social/legal/ physical • Women in ‘roving’ accommodation DOMESTIC VIOLENCE/ABUSE; INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE/ABUSE; GENDER BASED VIOLENCE/ABUSE • Partners may decide to use whatever terminology they feel is most appropriate VIOLENCE/ABUSE • Physical, social, psychological, honour related, sexual, economic, financial. INTIMATE PARTNER/GENDER BASED • Occurring within a family • Inter familial – that is, occurring within a group of peers or within a family type situation • Within an intimate partner context A. Background Information Name of interviewee....................................................................... Name of interviewer........................................................................ Date and time of interview..............................................................

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B. Research Questions About You: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

How old are you? How would you describe your ethnicity? Do you have any children? How old are they and are they with you? Are you/have you been married or lived with a partner? When did you leave school and do you have any qualifications? How are you supporting yourself currently? (Prompt: benefits/how much/how long) 7. Do you ever run out of money? If so, what do you do? 8. Are you looking for work/training at the moment? 9. Would you like to work? What kind of job would you like? Your Situation: 10. What is your current situation (Prompt: where are you staying now/ where have you stayed in the past?) 11. When did you sleep rough and for how long? 12. Why did you sleep rough? 13. What was your life like before you slept rough? (Prompt: rented/ owned accommodation/job/relationship/children) 14. Have you ever run away from home or been in care? (Prompt: reasons) 15. Were you in a relationship? What was it like? 16. Did your partner use drugs or alcohol? 17. Were you subject to domestic violence of any sort from your partner? (Prompt: physical/psychological/controlling behaviour/ isolation/abuse of children) 18. Who was the person who did this to you? (Prompt: partner/authority figure) 19. How did this make you feel? (Prompt: afraid/insecure/angry) 20. Why do you think this happened? 21. Did you report this to anyone (the authorities) or did you have anyone you could talk to about it – such as a friend, family member? Would talking to someone about this have helped you? 22. How long did the abuse go on for? 23. Was the abuse the reason you became homeless, or was it for other reasons? 24. Have you ever been to prison? 25. Have you ever been in trouble with the police?

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Life on the Street: 26. Where did you sleep when you were homeless (roofless)? 27. If you have children, what happened to them? 28. What were the worst things about sleeping rough? (Prompt: fear/ sexual vulnerability/loneliness/abuse/the cold/health issues) 29. Since sleeping rough, have you been drinking too much alcohol or taken drugs? 30. While sleeping rough, was the issue of sex work relevant to you? Have you encountered that or any other form of sexual threat? 31. For how long did you sleep rough and how did it come to an end? (Prompt: what sort of help/assistance did you access, if any?) Your Health: 32. Would you say your health is poor, average or good? (Prompt: expand) 33. Are you currently receiving any treatment for health issues? 34. Are your health issues linked to your rough sleeping? 35. Have you been in hospital or visited A&E at any time and if so, for what? 36. Do you, or have you ever suffered from mental health issues? 37. Have you had intervention from health services in relation to any of these problems? What was your experience of this like? 38. Is drug or alcohol use an issue for you now or has it been in the past? 39. Are you working with a drug agency currently or receiving any medication for drug problems? Access to Services: 40. Do you have any support from parents/other family or friends? 41. Have you received any help directly connected to your homelessness? 42. Did you have to seek out help, or was help offered to you? 43. What sort of agencies/organisations have you had contact with? Have they been helpful? 44. Have you directly accessed services for rough sleepers? What type was this and how did they help you? 45. Have your problems been treated seriously by the agencies you have had contact with? (Prompt: any good or bad examples?) 46. Do you think there should be women only services for WRS? 47. Do you think your homelessness was treated seriously/have you been treated seriously? 48. What sort of accommodation have you been offered? 49. Have you been able to stay with your children?

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General Issues: 50. What are your hopes for the future? 51. What could be done to stop women sleeping rough? 52. Is there anything else you would like to add? Thank you very much for your time.

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Index

Index Note: f refers to a figure; t refers to a table

abuse 170f age 169f alcohol misuse see substance misuse ‘anomie’ 29 arranged marriages  61 axial coding  13, 14

Crisis  24, 45, 46, 51, 55 cultural factors Hungary 73–5 Spain 67–8 Sweden 59–63 UK  52–3, 54 Cumella, S.  26

B

D

A

Bakos, P.  71 Ball, J. et al  29 Beck, U.  29 begging  37, 39, 54, 55, 64, 69, 76, 200 Beijer, U.  58, 59, 60 Blair, Tony  21, 22 Budapest  24, 70, 76

C Cabrera, P.  66, 68 Cahill, H.K.  24, 184 Carlen, P.  21 Casey, R. et al  2, 3, 4, 5, 46, 48 ‘Cathy Come Home’ (play)  34 causal factors  29, 31, 32–3 CHAIN see Combined Homelessness and Information Network child sexual abuse, as predictor  49 childhood homelessness, as predictor 49 children impact on  61, 62, 170 as priority need  4, 55 separation from  24, 59, 60, 172 Children Act 1989, UK  55 Chirba, M.A. et al  38 Christophs, Irja  61 coding of data  13–14 Combined Homelessness and Information Network (CHAIN) 3 co-morbidity  5, 24, 77, 174, 184 Cooley, C.  8 criminalisation of homelessness  36– 40, 54, 69, 76, 180, 196, 200

Data Protection Act 1998, UK  11 disability 62 disenfranchisement 37 diversity  24, 184 domestic violence definition 13 and dysfunctional childhood  32–3 Hungary  72, 73, 74, 75 interview sample  10, 24, 25, 170, 184 as major factor  1, 4, 5, 26, 31, 47, 48 percentage of  24 after separation  194 service providers and  117–19 Spain 67 Sweden 59 drug misuse see substance misuse dumpster diving see ‘skipping’ Durkheim, E.  28, 29 dysfunctional childhood as predictor  32, 172

E Eagly, A.H. et al  41 economic cutbacks  34, 35 Edgar, B. and Doherty, J.  199 education  87, 135, 172, 181, 191, 194, 197 education, male  42, 105, 174, 197, 200 empowerment of women  171, 180, 191, 197, 198, 201 Equation (formerly the Nottinghamshire Domestic Violence Forum (NDVF))  5, 48 ethical approval  10, 11

229

Women rough sleepers in Europe

ethnographic approach  17, 44, 79–83 ETHOS approach  57, 63 European Federation of National Organisations see FEANTSA European Union  6, 31, 71, 191–6 eviction  57, 71, 75 ‘eviction quota system,’ Hungary 76 exclusion from services  4, 24, 47

F faith-based organisations  53 family instability, as predictor  49– 50 FEANTSA (European Federation of National Organisations)  42, 71, 191, 192–6 female offenders  41 feminist theory  22, 23, 25 Finland 195 Fitzpatrick, S. and Jones, A.  22 food banks  53 Forrest, S.and Vermeer, V.  29, 30 Foucault, M.  23 Franér, P. and Ågren, G  58 Fraser, Charles  51

G gender stereotyping  31, 34, 41, 52 Giddens, A.  29 Glaser, B.  8, 9 Glaser, B. and Strauss, A.  8, 9, 14 Göncz, Kinga  191 ‘grand theory’  8 Grenier, P.  2, 46 Grimshaw, P.  21 grounded theory approach  7, 8–9, 15

H Haber, M.G. and Toro, P.A.  26 HABITACT 192 Hanström, M-B  58, 59, 62 health, experience of interview sample Hungary 95 Spain  95, 96 Sweden 96–7 UK  94, 95 health services  58 Heidensohn, F.  41 Hitchens, Christopher  198 HIV/AIDS 51 Homeless (Scotland) Act 2003  54

‘homeless’ as term  5 Homeless World Cup  70 homelessness concepts of  25–6 current theories of  21–5 definitions  12, 45, 62, 69 as ideological construct  27 as illegal  42 increase in  4 as label  47, 48 responsibility to prevent, local authority 55 Homelessness Act 2002, UK  54, 55 Housing (Scotland) Act 2001  54 Housing Act 1977, UK  54 Housing Act 1996, UK  54, 55 Housing (Northern Ireland) Order 1988 54 Huey, L. and Berndt, E.  50 Hungary demographics and characteristics  72, 164–5 ethnicity 164f interviews  85–6, 88–9, 92, 93, 95, 98–9, 102, 103 legislation  37, 42, 69, 73, 74, 75, 76 literature review  69–72 predictors in women  72–3 prevalence of female homelessness 71 provision gaps  35, 178 service providers  109–10, 156, 157

I imprisonment, as predictor  49, 84 INE, Spain see National Statistics Institute Inge, G.  58 Inside Housing  51 integrated strategies  195

J Jewkes, Y.  7, 17, 198 Johnson, B. et al  22 Johnson, Boris  3

K Kocsis, Máté  73 Kumar, A.  28

230

Index

L late modernity and homelessness 28–30 life expectancy  42 local authorities applications to  4 and behavioural isues  53 and civil organisations  70 legal duty of  54–5 and migrants  40 ‘priority’ need’  47 Löfstrand, C.H.  62 London 3

M Macionis, J.J. et al  29 marginalisation  5, 59, 62, 63, 66 MAW (multi-agency working)  178, 179 May, J. et al  46 McNaughton, C.  26, 27, 34, 36 Mead, G.H.  8 medicalisation  62, 63 mental health issues and emergency accommodation 56 Hungary  73, 98–9 as predictor  50 prevalence  24, 48, 49 Spain 99–100 Sweden  59–60, 100–1 UK 97–8 under-treatment 51–2 methodology 8–19 definitions 12–13 migrants, female  42, 53, 54, 61, 68, 199 modernity 28–9 Monbiot, G.  39, 40 Moss, K. and Singh, P.  51, 72 multi-agency working see MAW Muñoz, M. et al  65 Murray, C.  21 Muslim women  52, 53

N National Board of Health and Welfare, Sweden  57, 63 National Statistics Institute (INE), Spain 65 National Zakat Foundation  52 Neale, J.  22, 23, 26 negative experiences, interview sample Hungary  102, 103

Spain  103, 104 Sweden 104 UK 102 Netherlands 195 North Africa  68 Northern Ireland, legislation  54 Nottinghamshire Domestic Violence Forum (NDVF) see Equation

O O’Callaghan, J.  13 Orchard, G.  77

P patriarchy  23, 31, 59, 74 Penal Code, Hungary  74 Penal Code, Sweden  63, 64, 65 personal responsibility  21, 22, 30 pets  35, 64, 167, 172, 180, 198 ‘point of saturation’  9 police and begging  39, 200 and domestic violence  73, 75, 178 interview sample and  162, 165, 166 and multi-agency working  131 and public spaces  38, 40, 54 and ‘skipping’  56 Police Act 1984, Sweden  64 postmodernity 29 poverty and austerity measures  53 as causal factor  21, 22 criminalisation of  35, 37, 55, 200 and empowerment of women  198 ‘poverty added situations’ of women 66 prevention of  192 predictors of rough sleeping  49–52 prevalence of rough sleeping  43 prevention  71, 140, 174, 179, 195, 200 profiles 173f, 199 prostitution see sex work psychosis 51 public lockers  38 Public Order Act 1993, Sweden  63 Public Order Act 1998, UK  54 public spaces criminalisation of  31, 76 regulation of  35, 36, 40, 73–4, 77 and resistance  46

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Women rough sleepers in Europe

women’s use of  2, 3 public space protection orders  37, 38

Q qualitative interviewing  8

R racial abuse  72, 164, 187 Rahimian, A. et al  40 realistic evaluation approach  7, 18 Reeve, K. et al  4, 5, 47, 48 rehabilitation-based approach  71 rent, cost of  53 resistance  3, 46 risk and sexual exchange  50–1 Romany gypsies, Hungary  72 rooflessness, definition  12, 13 rough sleeping, experience of interview sample Hungary  92, 93 Spain 93 Sweden 93–4 times and duration  170, 171 UK  91, 92 Rosengren, Annette  60

S Sanchez, A.  65 Scheff, T.J.  41 Schwandt, T.A.  199 Scotland  54, 195 self-identity 40 self-respect, loss of  59 service providers on benefit changes  155–6 on characteristics of clients  112– 14, 175, 176 data 175t falling through net  147–9 on funding  154, 155, 156–8, 159 evidence of good practice  137–9 gaps in provision  35, 177, 178, 179 on legislation and policies  122–5 local strategies  125–8 on multi-agency working  130, 131–4 operational and policy suggestions  140–6, 179–81 and preventive measures  134–7 on respect  159 and return to mainstream  150–3 on safety  159 on services available  119–22

training  115–17, 176, 177 working to professional guidelines 129–30 sex work historical connection  34 and poverty  54 as predictor  49, 50, 162, 166, 167, 173f and substance misuse  51 sexual exchange  33, 50, 54, 77 sexual violence  50, 61, 72, 166, 184, 193, 194 Shapps, Grant  3 shelters, women only  30, 35, 52–3, 119, 120, 189, 200 shoplifting  91, 101 Sikhs 53 situations of interview sample Hungary  85–6, 88–9 Spain  86, 89, 90 Sweden  86–7, 90, 91 UK  84, 85, 87, 88 ‘skipping’ (dumpster diving)  55, 56, 64, 76 Snipes, Lawson  38 Social Act 1993, Hungary  69 Social Act 2011, Hungary  177 ‘social dysfunction theory’  28–31, 32, 36 social exclusion  39, 40, 65, 66 Social Exclusion Unit report  21 Social Services Act 2001, Sweden 63 ‘Soldiers off the Street’  56 Somerville, P.  25 Spain 24 cultural factors/ethnicity  67–8 demographics and characteristics 165–7 ethnicity 166f immigrants, female  68 increase in homelessness  66 interviews  86, 89, 90, 93, 95, 96, 99–100, 103, 104 legislation  68, 69 predictors in women  66, 67 provision gaps  35 service providers  110, 157, 158 Spain (Andalusia), literature review 65–6 spatial boundaries  46 squatting 54 St Mungo’s  51 Stadig, I.  58 statutory care as child, as predictor 49 stereotyping of homeless  38, 41 resistance to  60

232

Index

Stewart, A.B.R.  27 stigmatisation  34, 40–1, 56, 196 Strauss, A. and Corbin, J.  8 street outreach lack of take up  1, 4, 47, 77 responsiveness of  185 shortage of  35 structural theory  22 students 53 subcultures 33 substance misuse and emergency accommodation 56 Hungary 73 long term  62 and mental health issues  5 and poverty  54 as predictor  49, 50 and risky sex  51 Sweden 59–60 suicide 46 Sweden best practice model  24 demographics and characteristics 167–9 ethnicity 168f increase in female homelessness 57 interviews  86–7, 90, 91, 93–4, 96–7, 100–1, 104 legislation  63–4, 65 literature review  56–7 long-term rough sleeping  43 predictors  57, 58–9 service providers  111, 158 ‘symbolic interactionism’  8

literature review  45–8, 49 service providers  108, 109 UN (United Nations)  192, 194 under-reporting 65 unemployment 62 USA 38

V

Vagrancy Act 1824, UK  39, 54, 56 Vagrant Act 1744, UK  77, 78 violence, gender-related  193 see also domestic violence; sexual violence violence, street  42 visibility, lack of  24, 25, 31, 33–4, 40, 184

W Walsh, C.  5, 48 Wardhaugh, J.  34 Watson, S.  25, 34 Watson, S. and Austerberry, H.  25 Weedon, C.  23 welfare reform  34, 42, 140, 159, 200 women-based services see targeted provision

Y YMCA 47

Z Zola, I.K.  40

T targeted provision  5, 25, 30–1, 35, 58, 68, 101 Tarlós, István  74, 76 ‘theoretical sampling’  9 ‘theoretical sensitivity’  9, 80 Thörn, C.  60 Trussell Trust  53

U UK austerity measures  53 demographics and characteristics  161, 162–3, 164 ethnicity 162f interviews  84, 85, 87, 88, 91, 92, 94, 95, 97–8, 102 legislation  35, 39, 54–6

233

Women’s rough sleeping is a major issue across Europe and is especially problematic within the current economic climate. Based on a European Union DAPHNE III-funded project, this important book tells the story of the women and organisations that took part in the study. Revealing a number of truths about women’s rough sleeping across Europe, the authors argue that there is little or no specific provision for this vulnerable and hard-to-reach group. The book focuses on the adoption of effective policies, strategies and services to meet the needs of homeless women and the specific problem of women rough sleepers who are the victims of domestic abuse. It will be a valuable resource for academics and students of criminology, social policy, law, social work and probation, as well as housing/homelessness practitioners, policy makers, local authorities and non-governmental organisations.

KATE MOSS is Professor of Criminal Justice at the Central Institute for the Study of Public Protection (CISPP), University of Wolverhampton, UK. PARAMJIT SINGH is Director for Research at CISPP, University of Wolverhampton, UK.

GENDER STUDIES / SOCIOLOGY

ISBN 978-1-4473-1709-8

WOMEN ROUGH SLEEPERS IN EUROPE • Kate Moss and Paramjit Singh

“This compelling review of women’s homelessness Europe provides fresh insights into an enduring problem. The book reveals the challenges homeless women face in a world where neoliberalist housing market principles prevail.” Dr Angela Maye-Banbury, Sheffield Hallam University, UK

WOMEN ROUGH SLEEPERS IN EUROPE Homelessness and victims of domestic abuse

www.policypress.co.uk 9 781447 317098 @policypress

PolicyPress

Kate Moss and Paramjit Singh

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10/19/2015 10:04:50 AM