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Exclusion by Definition: The Under-representation of Women in European Homelessness Statistics

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Women’s Homelessness in Europe

Abstract

Chapter 5 looks at recent research indicating that European systems for enumerating homelessness are undercounting homeless women. European homelessness data often vary in quality and extent between individual municipalities, as well as by region and country. Widely used point-in-time counts, of people living rough and using homelessness services, tend to undercount women. Women living rough stay out of sight for reasons of safety and women are more likely to respond to homelessness by using ‘sofa surfing’ arrangements than approaching services. Failures to recognize that gender differentiates experience of homelessness, or recognize the limitations of point-in-time methodology, have misrepresented homelessness as largely ‘male’.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Housing/toolkit/Pages/RighttoAdequateHousingToolkit.aspx.

  2. 2.

    Slovenia did not have sufficient data on gender; the UK reported varying levels of women, depending on which part of the homeless population was being examined.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of York, York, UK

    Nicholas Pleace

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  1. Nicholas Pleace
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Correspondence to Nicholas Pleace .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Paula Mayock

  2. Centre for Housing Policy, University of York, York, United Kingdom

    Joanne Bretherton

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Pleace, N. (2016). Exclusion by Definition: The Under-representation of Women in European Homelessness Statistics. In: Mayock, P., Bretherton, J. (eds) Women’s Homelessness in Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54516-9_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54516-9_5

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-54515-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-54516-9

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