The launch session in September 2023 with reps from Solace, SHP, Camden Council, including the outreach team, GLA and Felicity Buchan, minister for housing and homelessness [Single Homeless Project]

ROUGH-sleeping women have described staying in McDonald’s until night buses start running to keep themselves safe from harassment, a new report has said.

Described as “deeply upsetting” by agencies involved with homelessness, the London Councils Women’s Rough Sleeping Census 2023 exposes a heartbreaking picture of the struggles facing women as they try to stay safe on Islington’s streets.

Eleanor Greenhalgh, women’s rough sleeping policy manager at Solace, said: “Women are less likely to be visible in that way. They might be sleeping in like a stairwell. They might be walking around all night. They might be sitting in McDonald’s or on a train.

“Women tell us repeatedly how unsafe they feel. That lack of safety is one of the reasons why women are less visible, because they’re making really sensible choices in relation to what their risks are but it puts them further away from services.”

The report revealed homelessness among women in Islington had risen to 38, with an increase in homeless women engaging with the census too. Responses had gone from nine women in 2022 to 25 in 2023.

“The numbers are so much higher [this year], which is really significant,” said Ms Greenhalgh. “The more women we see – while that’s not good because there are more women we know about being out there – it’s actually more of a confirmation of what we’ve thought.”

The report stated: “It can be hard to locate women who are rough sleeping: they don’t look like they’re rough sleeping; they’re not sleeping at night; they move on quickly; they cross over between boroughs; they sometimes sleep in places outreach teams can’t access.”

It also warned that domestic abuse between homeless couples was a “significant theme” among agencies. “Women are often seen with men/partners, often for protection,” it stated.

“The influence of the men/partners on women’s interaction and engagement with services is significant and a major barrier to services. One service said ‘this is exhausting as a professional’.”

Because women are less visibly homeless, the report stated the full extent of the capital’s rough sleeping crisis is underreported.

As a result, the amount of funding councils receive is impacted and drives a lack of single-sex accommodation for women.

In 2022, the first women’s rough sleeping census was published, which uses a different “gender-informed” methodology to the standard street counts to record how many people face homelessness.

While Ms Greenhalgh warned there was a “huge lack of suitable accommodation for women,” Elodie Berland from Streets Kitchen, based in Seven Sisters Road, said the census was “an important tool” that could effect change by “providing a small glimpse into the reality faced by thousands of women”.

She added: “It gives us a fantastic opportunity to review a system in place that does not fulfil women’s needs. We echo the survey results findings calling for urgent changes that need to be implemented by all local authorities.”

The report recommended all London boroughs adopt “an inclusive and gender-informed definition of rough sleeping” and called on them to further research how women end up on the streets.

“We must recognise the unique challenges women face and create support systems that can simply address these needs.

“It can be done and must be done urgently,” Ms Berland said.