You often never ever see them. They discreetly drift around and do a disappearing act.
Countless homeless women fleeing from domestic abuse or succumbing to overwhelming economic pressures such as no-fault evictions, higher rent and low pay are never counted among government statistics or research reports by academics. They are attempting to remain inconspicuous in order to avoid either abusers or potential predators. They are in hiding and are termed 'the Hidden homeless.' Many are sleeping rough (Amer. “homeless, sleeping outdoors”) because hostels for the homeless can turn out to be much more dangerous to their safety. In the United Kingdom, the average life expectancy for a woman sleeping rough is just 41! Some things never change. For this statistic was the same for women sleeping rough during Victorian times!
"By the time I'd reached 18 I'd already been physically attacked at school, I'd been physically attacked by my mum, I'd been raped 3 times and constantly sexually abused. I attempted suicide on several occasions because I did not trust any adult. I did not trust the care system," stated an interviewed homeless woman who found refuge in a special center which looked after unhoused women fleeing from domestic violence. She was not alone in feeling suicidal. Many women sleeping rough report suicidal feelings.
You can often intuit women who have been badly abused. They retain a deep distrust of men in general. When men shoot a glance at them on a train they can avoid eye contact or shoot back a hostile glance. They are highly suspicious of offers of help from men and are wondering what 'the catch ' is.
For instance, in Moscow, an innocent school boy who just gave directions to a lost school girl to a classroom was immediately assaulted by the girl. It emerged that this young girl had been raised in an orphanage and then adopted. But such a dramatic over reaction suggests that she may well be traumatized by earlier abuse.
When I once met a temporarily homeless woman who had been on the streets of Moscow, I asked her if anyone had helped her or if she had any useful contacts here. She answered me that "A lot of men want to help me, but they always want sex in return. I am waiting for this woman to turn up so I can stay with her." Fortunately, she managed to get help from an acquainted woman.
While working with the homeless in Moscow, I noticed a lot of women turning to prostitution just to survive. Once I was interviewing one homeless woman when suddenly an angry and aggressive man approached me, grabbed my notes, tore them up and led her away. It was the abrupt end of the interview.
What is clear is the plight of women sleeping rough in Britain and Russia is getting worse. According to the charity “18 Keys,” which provides a refuge for homeless women fleeing abuse, it is impossible to make an exact estimate of women sleeping rough because those women are 'in hiding' from their abusers. They have to make their presence inconspicuous. Any indiscretion could be fatal. According to Nicci Gerrard who works for 18 keys "Street counts estimating that women account for 15 % to 20% of the homeless total are almost certainly an underestimation. Women are the hidden homeless. Because they are so at risk on the streets, and vulnerable to all kinds of cruelty and abuse, they tend to conceal themselves.
They ride night buses; walk through the small hours; sleep in disused cars, have "survival sex" such as sex work or sofa surfing in return for sex; find places they cannot be seen. During the wet, raw December afternoon I spent with two women from the outreach team at St Martins-in -the Fields, I was shown where to look: “under that plastic sheeting, say, spread across a pile of rubbish. A woman lives in there; it's her home."
Some people just do not understand how easy it is for anyone to become homeless. Those same people might 'blame the victim.' They say, "This woman should not have married this aggressive man" or " She should have left him long ago." Those people never ask the basic question of whether the woman has an alternative place to go to. With soaring rents for private accommodation, lack of available social housing, low pay, and people who are reluctant to offer them even temporary overnight stay, they are forced to stay on the streets.
And often hostels for the homeless are unsafe places. One homeless woman called Sara who stayed in a Low Support Hostel in London stated,
"There were just 6 beds, just girls. But the girl in the room opposite across from me--she was not low support--she was working as a prostitute, and she was heavily addicted to crack. When there was no staff, there was no one to prevent what was going on. She was getting massively sexually exploited. There was a lot of violence as well. The whole house was getting used as a crack house."
And why do some homeless take drugs? Anyone who has worked with helping addicts will tell you that doctors have to get to the roots of the problem. The addict often has experienced some past traumatic experience. They use drugs to block out the pain of those unpleasant experiences such as past mental or physical abuse. For example, one homeless woman stated, "I came out of a foster home at 16 and was targeted by gangs. People were spiking my drinks on a regular basis. I was exposed to further physical and sexual abuse. I fell pregnant and lost my baby. I binge drank for a really wrong time and now I've had therapy. I realize that a lot was to do with my post-traumatic stress disorder."
Much research into the plight of homeless women sleeping rough has found that such women employ 'invisibility strategies' such as sleeping in places hidden from view and spending time in 24-hour services {Center for the New Midlands, “2021 Report”}. Some walk around all night. They feel keeping on the move will lessen the risk of being attacked by potential predators.
Some of those strategies are very old. In William Shakespeare's play, “The Twelfth Night,” the shipwrecked girl Viola is forced to disguise herself as a man simply to survive. The charity Solace Women's Aid found some women were also pretending to be men to escape the unwanted attention of dangerous men {see Solace Women's Aid, “A Strategy for Ending Women's Homelessness in England,” PDF, 3.84 MB}.
The state authorities don't provide sufficient aid to such vulnerable women. In fact, official figures by observers have found that safe houses were denied to 10,000 women fleeing from domestic abuse throughout England in 2022. Although official statistics by the government show that 15% of those sleeping rough are women, local organizations claim this is a gross underestimate. Homeless advocates claim it could be as high as 35%. This problem was also compounded by the pandemic when there was a shocking rise in domestic abuse.
Women fleeing domestic abuse face an incredible odd predicament. They are attempting to make themselves so inconspicuous that they feel 'they are on the run.' They feel as if they are themselves living like 'wanted criminals.' The abusers themselves run the roost remaining with a roof over their heads! Aren't things upside down in a surreal way? Shouldn't the abusers be the ones feeling like criminals?
Suggesting such fleeing women live in hostels is not an option. Many homeless women have had very terrible experiences in mixed hostels which can be noisy, overcrowded, and dangerous places where they are at risk from further abuse. Such hostels are too often a threat rather than a safe refuge. Small wonder that so many women are sleeping rough.
The state needs to take drastic action to provide safe, secure and pleasant accommodation for those vulnerable women. Such women need specialist aid to deal with any complex needs such as access to professional therapist, career officers, as well as attaining a home which is warm, and protected. Nicci Gerrald of 18 Keys states the aim of their charity is to "enable women with complex needs to live in a safe house that will also be a proper home" {For the full information from Nicci Gerrald's brilliant article see: “Homeless Women are Invisible Not Because They Don't Exist - They Are Hiding from Danger,” The Observer, 10-12-23}.
Those hostels should be all women. However, while charities can play a profound role in assisting some homeless and advocating for the homeless, they can't be a substitute for a more radical and well-funded state program which aims to assist women. The scale of the problem is so huge we need to recognize this as an emergency which requires urgent intervention on a bold scale.
For we can't allow the ordeal of such abused women to go on. Anything less represents criminal negligence!