As Leeds completes the fourth year of the Women’s Rough Sleeping Census, the findings continue to highlight something national homelessness strategies are increasingly recognising: women’s homelessness is different to men’s experiences and requires support that reflects the gender-informed definition of rough sleeping.
The Census includes women whose experiences may be missed by traditional rough sleeping counts, giving us a fuller picture of rough sleeping across the city. This year, 72 surveys were completed, with 63 validated responses. While many women reported recent experiences of rough sleeping, the findings also showed homelessness is rarely a simple or short-term experience. Eleven women reported first experiencing homelessness around 10 years ago, while another eleven reported homelessness stretching back 20 years or more.
The Census also highlighted the ongoing need for outreach and flexible support, More than 1 in 3 surveyed reporting rough sleeping every day or night during the previous three months. These findings reinforce the reality that many women continue to experience rough sleeping in ways that can remain hidden from traditional counts and services.
Importantly, women told us that effective housing services are about far more than a roof over their heads. They spoke about the need for safety, stability, non-judgemental support, accommodation that meets their individual needs, and options that recognise the realities of their lives, including relationships, pets, mental health, and connection to support networks. These are not simply things that women would like to have; they are often essential to sustaining housing and preventing a return to rough sleeping. When support addresses the underlying causes of homelessness and creates the conditions for respite, recovery and rebuilding of long-term stability, women are more likely to move away from homelessness permanently.
The Census findings continue to highlight the importance of gender-informed responses that recognise and respond to the complex factors that can lead to homelessness and repeat rough sleeping.
These messages strongly align with the government’s new Everybody In approach, which aims to ensure everyone experiencing rough sleeping is offered a route off the streets alongside access to housing, health support and longer-term solutions. The approach recognises that ending homelessness requires more than emergency accommodation. It requires person-centred support, prevention, partnership working and housing options that people can sustain long term.
For Leeds, the Women’s Census offers a vital opportunity to ensure women’s experiences inform these conversations. By understanding rough sleeping and hidden homelessness, listening to women and identifying barriers to support, we can strengthen local prevention and develop collaborative, strengths-based and gender-informed pathways away from rough sleeping. Ultimately, the findings show that positive outcomes depend not only on housing, but also on
services working together to provide safe, flexible and sustainable routes out of homelessness and towards long-term stability.
We thank the women who took part; our city partners who conducted the surveys; and Leeds City Council, the Frontline Network and Lloyds Bank Foundation for their continued support. We also thank the national team at Single Homelessness Project and Solace Women’s Aid for ensuring Leeds data contributes to the wider national picture and that women’s voices are heard beyond the city.
Further reading
· Government announcement: Everybody In and the national drive to end rough sleeping [gov.uk] · Homeless Link commentary on Everybody In [homeless.org.uk]