Women’s Homelessness in

Europe Network

WHEN

Women’s Homelessness

• There is longstanding evidence that women

may experience homelessness in a different

way from men

• But the evidence base is incomplete and not

always very well developed, nor is it up to

date

Women’s Homelessness

• One issue is that research is simply not done

on women, nor are detailed data collected

• This is partly a result of where

homelessness research and data collection

tend to focus which is towards street

homelessness and living rough

• Women less likely to sleep rough, more likely

to use informal arrangements with

friends/family/acquaintances

Women’s Homelessness

• Women’s experience of homelessness is

also concealed in other ways

• Gender based and domestic violence is

often a cause of, or associated with,

women’s homelessness

• But research, services and data collection is

often separated from homelessness and not

regarded as being homelessness

Women’s Homelessness

• Family homelessness is highly gendered

• Disproportionately experienced by younger

women with children who are lone parents

• The implications and effects of family

homelessness being a social problem

disproportionately experienced by women

have not been properly explored

Women’s Homelessness

• Lack of research and a lack of data mean we

do not understand the nature or extent of

women’s homelessness in many EU

countries

• The extent to which women respond to

homelessness using informal relationships,

rather than services, needs to be better

understood, if extensive – which what

evidence we have suggests it is - then we

are not dealing with a major dimension of

homelessness as a social problem

WHEN

• Established by Paula Mayock, Trinity

College Dublin

• Co-Directors:

• Paula Mayock, Trinity College

• Joanne Bretherton, University of York, Centre

for Housing Policy

WHEN

• An international network for research and

collaboration in the field of women's

homelessness.

• Designed to share and discuss the research

findings and the latest thinking, relevant to

homeless support organisations, charities and

academics.

WHEN

• An international network for research and

collaboration in the field of women's

homelessness.

• Designed to share and discuss the research

findings and the latest thinking, relevant to

homeless support organisations, charities and

academics.

Goals of WHEN

• The first aim of the network will be to produce

an edited book that will summarise the state of

knowledge on women’s homelessness, bringing

all the best information available together

• This work will also identify gaps in

understanding, areas where data and research

are out of date and areas in which research has

been inadequate

• Discussions are now happening with publishers

Goals of WHEN

• The longer term goals of WHEN will be to

develop conferences and seminars both for

academic and other audiences

• Also to include discussion papers and think

pieces on the WHEN website

• It is important to the WHEN network members

that information of real, practical use for

homelessness strategies, service design and

service delivery is generated by WHEN’s work

• New collaborative and comparative research will

also be a key goal in the medium term

WHEN website

• http://www.womenshomelessness.org

Contacts

• Paula Mayock (Co-Director) Trinity College

Dublin PMAYOCK@tcd.ie

• Joanne Bretherton (Co-Director) University of

York joanne.bretherton@york.ac.uk

• http://www.womenshomelessness.org