For their safety women experiencing homelessness often try to stay hidden, away from the dangers of life on the streets. But, this also means they can remain hidden from the support services available to them.

Women on our streets are likely to be overlooked, missed and uncounted in traditional rough sleeper counts. So there is now an annual nationwide women's rough sleeper census held between July and September, where women who access support for homelessness are asked to complete a census. The aim is to bring visibility to women rough sleeping to help us better understand the experiences of women living on our streets and how services can be adapted to help them.

The results of the Manchester part of the 2024 census have been published and we are going to go through the key findings. The results of the census show that women are under counted in the regular rough sleeper counts. Many women often choose to rough sleep in areas that would be hidden from regular counts and outreach services. These include late night takeaways, A and E, public transport, squats and for women engaging in sex work staying with a stranger or punter. There are many women rough sleeping in Manchester who would not be recognised as rough sleeping through regular counting methods. The results also show that there was an increase with 82 women rough sleeping compared to 64 last year.

The census also asked the women what services they accessed for support, there was a high use of specialist and health-based services accessed by women, such as MASH, CGL and Centrepoint. This suggests that the women rough sleeping in Manchester are high need vulnerable people who need in depth support to help them escape homelessness.

The results could also show that fewer women find themselves homeless and on streets than men, as the figures for men rough sleeping from the rough sleeper counts are higher than the figures for women found in this census. This could be for a variety of reasons for example women are more likely to be allowed to sofa surf with a friend, women are more likely to be the primary carer of children so when they end up homeless with children local authorities are legally required to immediately house them to prevent children ending up street homeless.

The results of this study show that the current definitions of rough sleeping used by the government and the methods of counting them are not adequately capturing all the women who rough sleep and should be adjusted. This could mean that some outreach services are not able to reach women rough sleeping and give them the care they need, these outreach services should look into adapting their methods. The women choosing to avoid the streets will often not be considered to be immediately homeless if they are not found physically on the streets by council outreach teams so will miss out on housing support or find themselves at the back of any lists for housing.

Most importantly the census shows that the women who sleep rough in Manchester are very vulnerable and need in depth wrap-around care to help them escape homelessness. Manchester needs to provide more high need support services and supported accommodation for women. People with high needs struggle with the rigid systems often in place in homelessness shelters and support services. The stats show that almost all of women rough sleeping in Manchester have a level of trauma which requires intensive support, this suggests that women could be struggling to access the more rigid support available and miss out.

The requirements of women rough sleeping in Manchester needs to be acknowledged and reflected in the public service delivery. charities and front line services also need to advocate for more flexibility and understanding for women’s support needs from public services. This will help these women recover from the addictions, traumas and homelessness.

If you would like to support people  on their journey off the streets please support our Winter Appeal to help people experiencing homelessness this winter.