Abstract
Chapter 9 looks at the growing evidence that women with high and complex support needs are experiencing the most damaging forms of homelessness at higher rates than previously thought. Women with high and complex needs use precarious arrangements, forms of hidden or concealed homelessness, on a sustained and repeated basis. Women with high needs often do not engage with homelessness services unless informal supports, such as ‘sofa surfing’ between friends, relatives and acquaintances, break down. Lower and slower rates of contact with services have meant that this aspect of women’s homelessness has often been neglected by researchers and policymakers.
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Notes
- 1.
In 2012/13, the Supporting People client record, which details the use of integrated housing and support services in England, reported that 39 per cent of all women and 54 per cent of all men using accommodation-based (communal and congregate) and mobile housing related support services (peripatetic teams delivering support to people in ordinary housing) were homeless. The total populations monitored as using these services for whom data were available were 70,511 women and 70,798 men.
- 2.
‘Stepped’ or ‘staircase’ approches involve progressing individuals through a series of residential services, typically, from emergency hostels to transitional housing and then towards independent living. They are founded on a ‘treatment first’ philosophy or the notion that individuals need to be ‘fixed’ in order to sustain independent housing (Padgett et al. 2006a). Within ‘stepped’ models, progress along a continuum of care is contingent on evidence of ‘acceptable’ behaviour and compliance with treatment (for substance use and/or mental ill-health) (Sahlin 2005).
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Pleace, N., Bretherton, J., Mayock, P. (2016). Long-term and Recurrent Homelessness Among Women. In: Mayock, P., Bretherton, J. (eds) Women’s Homelessness in Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54516-9_9
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