Teaming up to tackle women’s homelessness: joint blog with Green Pastures

“We love working with Orchards, their passion, focus, single-mindedness and tailored approach for the one are inspiring. Lives being changed one at a time.”

Women’s homelessness is a nationwide, yet often hidden problem (Reis 2019). Women are disproportionately affected by homelessness compared to men (Scot and MacManus, 2016); one of the major reasons for this is domestic violence (crisis.org.uk, 2018).

Once women become homeless or are at risk of homelessness, there is a strong risk of entering different forms of sexual exploitation, trapping many women in an ongoing cycle of poverty, homelessness and violence. Over the last few years, we have seen housing poverty leaving women in sexually exploitative situations for the first time or unable to exit as they face a ‘choice’ between survival sex and homelessness. Orchards blogged about this here. 

Supported housing provision often does not meet the particular support needs of women; a recent study of women’s homelessness by Kairos (2020) in Coventry showed women feeling unsafe, being housed in mixed accommodation, near previous perpetrators and even experiencing rape within the accommodation provided for them.

This cycle has been exacerbated further through the knock-on effect of the Covid-19 crisis and it is for that reason that Green Pastures and Orchards have teamed up to provide housing support that is tailored to the specific needs of women who need a safe space to exit and recovery from the trauma of sexual exploitation.