Report: The women’s rough sleeping census 2025: missing women, Single Homeless Project and Solace, Crisis, Change Grow Live
What are the main points?
- As many as 10 times more women sleep rough in some parts of England than official government figures suggest.
- 65% of women surveyed said they had slept in places excluded from official homelessness counts, including buses, A&E waiting rooms and public transport, or stay awake through the night to avoid assault.
- Across six local authorities, official counts recorded zero women sleeping rough, while the census identified 162 women sleeping rough in those same areas.
- Now in its fourth year, the census used a gender-informed methodology across 101 local authorities for a more accurate picture. The findings also showed that women are not being helped by the very services designed to help them.
- The report’s five key asks include: updating the official definition of rough sleeping (current counts are built around visible, male ‘bedding down’ patterns), rolling out the census nationally, and making services safer for women
EXPERT THOUGHT
Paula Barker MP, Co-chair of the APPG for Ending Homelessness
‘Women are not absent from our streets; they are absent from the data… We cannot end homelessness while continuing to ignore the women hiding in plain sight.’
Image | ISTOCK
