Women’s Homelessness is often caused by a combination of life experiences but there are some triggers that particularly affect this group.

These include fleeing a violent partner, sexual abuse and growing up in care. Unfortunately, women are often left to face these additional traumas with little access to specialist support. This must change.

Women’s homelessness can be invisible.

Many women report being too scared to sleep on the streets at night, so some sleep in the daytime and are therefore missed by nightly outreach teams.

Others choose to stay on a bus or the Underground all night to avoid staying still. Many women also avoid homelessness services that men take for granted.

As few as 19% of the users of homelessness services are women in the UK- far below the total share of rough sleepers who are women. Only a quarter of homelessness charities have women’s-only services: we’re proud to be in that minority.

Our women’s only space

Every Wednesday morning, our centre in Adelaide Street is opened only to those who identify as women. This provides a safe space for women who may not otherwise feel secure enough to use our services. Last year, we saw 111 women come to this space for support.

The Women’s Development Unit

The Women’s Development Unit was a two-year partnership between The Connection at St Martin’s in the Field and Solace Women’s Aid.

The Unit was set up to advocate for and enhance the voice of homeless women in and improve services available to them.

The Women’s Development Unit achieved a great deal in its two years, including publishing the London-wide Strategy for Ending Women’s Homelessness.

The strategy brings together recommendations about the specialist services we need to expand, the different ways we can offer support, and how we should all be thinking more about women’s homelessness.

The Women’s Rough Sleeping Census

The Women’s Development Unit was instrumental in delivering the first women’s rough sleeping census in October 2022. The report, Making Women Count, was published in March 2023 and sets out the key findings of this pioneering approach.

The census found 154 women rough sleeping in London in a week. This indicates a higher number of women sleeping rough in London than previously believed.

It also emphasises that women’s rough sleeping is often transient, intermittent and hidden – which means that women are often not represented in official statistics and, crucially, are often precluded from accessing support and housing.

The report makes specific calls to action on the Government for system change in the way that women’s rough sleeping is recognised, counted and responded to:

You can find the full report here.

18 Keys Project

The Women’s Development Unit research work has shown that one of the biggest barriers is not having any safe accommodation to refer women to – particularly those who have more complex needs. There are very few women-only specialist accommodation services for women in London.

We have responded to this by developing the 18 Keys project, in partnership with the St Martin’s Trust. This exciting project will transform St Martin’s House into a dedicated space with 18 self-contained studio flats for those who identify as women as part of our Housing First Approach.

Our plans for the redevelopment include a communal space for people to come together. Intensive support will be available on site.