Homelessness and Gender Reconsidered

Although research has been sporadic, the available evidence indicates that gender is consistently associated with differentiated trajectories through homelessness in Europe. Women’s pathways through homelessness have been linked to domestic violence, women being ‘protected’ by welfare systems when dependent children are living with them and an apparently greater tendency for women to use and exhaust informal support, rather than homelessness or welfare services. This evidence is frequently disregarded in current European homelessness research, which often uses conceptualisa- tions, definitions and methodologies developed when homelessness was seen predominantly as a social problem among lone adult men. The sites at which homelessness is studied and the ways in which data are collected, limit accuracy of measurement and inhibit understanding, but, this paper contends, the real issues centre on how mainstream definitions of homelessness exclude women. Women, who lack any security of tenure, physical safety, privacy and whose living conditions are otherwise unacceptable – who are homeless – are too often outside the scope of contemporary European homelessness research. Drawing on recent UK studies and the wider European literature, this paper argues that there is a need to cease a longstanding focus on the streets, homelessness services and (predominantly) male experience and to look instead at the more nuanced interrelationships between gender and agency to fully understand the nature of homelessness in Europe

Crisis Skylight : Final Report of the University of York Evaluation

Crisis Skylight is an array of services focused on promoting social integration primarily for single homeless people, people at risk of homelessness and those with a recent history of homelessness.This research explored the outcomes for six Crisis Skylight services, in Birmingham, Edinburgh, London, Merseyside, Newcastle and Oxford over the period 2013-2015. Three of these services were building-based and three were outreach- based. The research employed a mixed- methods approach. This centred on a large scale qualitative longitudinal study that explored the experience of using Crisis Skylight from the perspectives of 158 homeless people. The research team also examined anonymised administrative data and conducted a range of other interviews and focus groups

Gender Dimensions in Conceptualisations of Homelessness : Theoretical and operational (in)visibility

This Integrative PhD Chapter draws together a selection of work chronicling a decade-long journey of development in thinking about how homelessness is perceived, understood and responded to. It reflects upon my engagement with research and policy, demonstrates the impact my work has had on service strategy and design and reviews my contribution to homelessness theory. Using ten example publications, presented under four themes, the chapter explores the role of my work in highlighting the failure to properly consider gender, in both academic debate and in-service design. It demonstrates how, while homelessness services have supposedly moved towards more personalised models, which are intended to recognise and respect the strengths, choices and opinions of homeless people and deliver bespoke services to meet their needs, little account has been taken of women’s experiences, needs or opinions. The chapter starts by introducing the different conceptualisations of homelessness and explores the debates around what is meant by homelessness. The discussion of my work begins by presenting an overview of the ten publications. An analysis of these publications is presented within four themes. Firstly, I use my work to inform a critical review of reductionist taxonomies of homelessness, that delimit homelessness causation simply to housing need and secondly by discussing how my work led me to re-examine existing thinking about the human dimensions of homelessness. The third theme I explore is inclusivity which considers the social and economic inclusion of homeless people and where my work added to my understanding of the multidimensional nature of homelessness. Finally, the theme of gender is discussed, exploring how the woeful underrepresentation of women in homelessness research has undermined our understanding of homelessness, weakened strategy and limited service effectiveness. The chapter concludes by presenting a case for reconceptualising homelessness, with the human dimensions of homelessness, which must include gender, at the core

The cost effectiveness of Housing First in England

This piece of work was commissioned by Homeless Link. This report draws on data collected across England, from Housing First service providers, people using Housing First and local authorities which were commissioning Housing First, during the Spring and Summer of 2018. The work had three elements: 1) A survey of Housing First service providers which asked for information on the costs of providing their services and collected basic information on how those services operated 2) A brief questionnaire that local authorities commissioning Housing First services were asked to complete, which detailed their spending on other forms of homelessness service alongside spending on Housing First 3) A questionnaire for people using Housing First, which compared their patterns of service use, with respect to health, mental health, addiction, social care and homelessness service and their contact with the criminal justice system, prior to and following use of Housing First. Respondents were asked to compare their typical patterns of service use over three months, as current users of Housing First, with their pattern of service use over a typical three-month period, before they were using Housing First

Is Work an Answer to Homelessness? : Evaluating an Employment Programme for Homeless Adults

There is mounting evidence that preventative services and Housing First, working with other homelessness services within an integrated home- lessness strategy, can greatly reduce the experience of lone adult homeless- ness. However, progress in reducing the socioeconomic inequalities and poor social integration associated with lone adult homelessness has been more mixed. Housing can be both secured and sustained, but absence of family and friendship ties, poor community inclusion, relatively poor health and economic exclusion can still continue after the physical experience of homelessness has ended. This paper draws on a two-year longitudinal evaluation of a multi-site programme that was designed to promote economic and social integration among homeless people in the UK. Tracking a cohort of people using the service over two years, it was found that people whose lives had been char- acterised by sustained social and economic integration prior to homelessness were most readily assisted by the programme. Successes were also achieved with homeless people who had little experience of formal paid work, and with people with higher needs for treatment and support, but results were more mixed. Work secured with the help of the programme could play an important role in facilitating and sustaining an exit from homelessness. However, some programme participants who were ‘successful’, in that they secured work and were no longer homeless, found themselves in a liminal state, in which their employment and housing were both poor quality and insecure

Housing First in England : An Evaluation of Nine Services

Research by Joanne Bretherton and Nicholas Pleace at the University of York has highlighted the potential effectiveness of the Housing First approach in reducing homelessness in England. This observational study of Housing First services showed high levels of success in reducing long-­‐‑term and repeated homelessness, which is associated with very high support needs. The successes of these English Housing First services reflect the results of positive evaluations of Housing First in North America and Europe

Camden Housing First : a Housing First experiment in London

The research was developed following initial informal discussions between the research team and a senior Single Homeless Project (SHP) manager in 2010. SHP wanted independent research to be conducted on an experimental ‘Housing First’ service that they had developed in response to a call from an elected municipality responsible for an area of central London, also known as a London borough, called Camden Council. Like other London boroughs, Camden has both a strategic and a legal responsibility for homelessness within its boundaries. The research was a small scale observational exercise that tracked the progress of CAMHF over the course of 14 months. Initial fieldwork visits took place two months after the project had come into operation, when CAMHF had just two people using the service, in April 2012, followed by fieldwork visits in July and early August 2012, when CAMHF had been running for six months. A final round of fieldwork was conducted from late March to May 2013, when CAMHF had been operational for just over one year

Crisis Skylight : Journeys to Progression : Second Interim Report of the University of York Evaluation

Crisis Skylight is a service for single homeless people that focuses on promoting health and well-being, housing stability, social support and employment. One-to-one support in Skylight focuses on a process of progression, designed to positively transform the social and economic position of single homeless people. Skylight also offers arts-based activities, basic skills education, training, volunteering, support with health and well-being, support in seeking work and assistance in finding and sustaining housing. This report is the second interim report of a three-year, mixed-method, evaluation of the Skylight programme by the University of York. The evaluation covers three building-based Skylight services in London, Newcastle and Oxford and three outreach-based services in Birmingham, Edinburgh and Merseyside. This report focuses entirely on the initial results from large-scale qualitative cohort study which is one part of the mixed-method Crisis Skylight programme evaluation. The cohort study looks at the ways in which Skylight could bring positive changes in single homeless people’s lives, also exploring the barriers that some single homeless people could face in progression. towards social integration. A total of 158 Skylight members had participated in interviews during 2013,2014 and Spring 2015. A fourth and final round of interviews is scheduled for the Autumn of 2015