Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Women’s Rough Sleeping Census, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that homelessness services respond effectively to the risk that women who are (a) rough sleeping or (b) experiencing homelessness experience (i) violence and (ii) abuse.

Our National Plan to End Homelessness makes clear that councils should consider the specific needs and barriers experienced by women in accessing services.

We are developing resources to support councils to consider the needs of women who are homeless, rough sleeping or experiencing domestic abuse. Our Outreach toolkit and Single Homelessness and Complex Needs toolkit will include advice on identifying and engaging women sleeping rough, and we are piloting an Ending Rough Sleeping Risk Assessment Tool which considers the experiences of women. Our Homelessness Prevention and Support toolkit will support councils in preventing homelessness where domestic abuse is a contributing factor.

We encourage councils to carry out a women’s rough sleeping census. Last year, we introduced new data on gender in the Rough Sleeping Data Framework, which can be found here.

We continue to work with a range of organisations to gain insight into the challenges faced by women.