“When you think about your home, what comes to mind?”
My professor posed this question on the first day of my homeless and housing policy class at Virginia Commonwealth University. After giving the class a few moments to compose personal lists, we were asked to share our thoughts.
Warm, family, and rest were our first collective thoughts. By association: safety, food, health, and even love. As the list grew, we each fell silent and began to understand the value of stability. A home is the foundation for living well. A home gives humans the ability to surpass their basic needs and thrive. A home has a deep interconnectedness to all parts of life.
I looked at my identity and imagined myself homeless. Using the countless hours I have spent with people who are homeless, I did my best to place myself in their shoes. In her shoes. As a woman and social worker, I thought the female homeless experience must be different and knew I needed to find out how.
October 10, 2018, is World Homeless Day -- a day committed to raising awareness about the issues people who are homeless face. It is observed on every continent, save for Antarctica. The last time a global survey was attempted in 2005, 100 million people were estimated to be homeless. 1.6 billion people, or 20% of the world’s population, were found to lack adequate housing.
These staggering statistics called me to begin a three part series on the unique experiences of homeless women, as well as the badass women who are doing something about this global crisis. After all, the purpose of World Homelessness Day is to educate ourselves and others, highlight local or specific issues, and celebrate the individuals and agencies that have committed themselves to fight the good fight to eradicate homelessness.
Homelessness at a Glance
Broadly, homelessness is defined as: “An individual or family who lacks fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence that is suitable for sleeping arrangements”.
This means that anyone sleeping in cars, shelters, abandoned buildings, or campgrounds is considered homeless. Even those staying with a series of friends, also known as “couch surfing” or “doubling up,” fit this description because these individuals lack permanent housing.
Those experiencing homelessness spend their days meeting the most basic of needs. Imagine how difficult it could be to wash your clothes and cook daily meals without a permanent home. How could you hold a job without a permanent address or go to school on a regular basis if you did not know where you were sleeping that night? It’s nearly impossible.
According to the Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress for 2017, an estimated 553,742 people are homeless on any given night in the United States. 213,709, or 39%, of these individuals are women. Not all of these women are single: 33% of the homeless population consists of families with children, and the majority of these families are headed (often solely) by women.
It’s Different for Women
Women experience homelessness differently than men, even down to the reasons why they become homeless.
In 2013, the National Center on Family Homelessness found that 50% of all women who are homeless report that domestic violence was the immediate cause. On a single night in January 2017 the Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress found that 16% of the homeless population reported experiencing domestic violence.
Sometimes when women leave their abusers, they are left homeless, jobless, and unable to financially support themselves or their children due to a lack of affordable housing. Holding a job while homeless already is incredibly difficult, and domestic violence only adds to the challenge. Often, homeless women must consider personal safety over their jobs, which keeps homeless families in shelters or doubled up with friends with no way to escape poverty.
Single women without dependent children face their own set of challenges.
In the United States , there are more homeless single men than women, a disparity that limits choices for homeless single women trying to find shelter. As many homeless women are survivors of domestic violence and must contend with past and often unresolved trauma, is it really any wonder why a single woman experiencing homelessness would avoid the male-dominated shelter system?
Many women will exhaust all other options before staying in a shelter, including staying with friends or sleeping in their cars. This pattern creates a “hidden homelessness” that leads many to believe that single women experiencing homelessness are few and far between. But they are out there, and they need resources, too.
Finally Home
All of these statistics and studies lead to the big question: “What do we do to help? ” There are many individuals and organizations, some of which are led by badass women, working to provide resources and aid to the homeless.
Kelly King Horne, the executive director of Homeward in Richmond, Virginia, is one of those badass women. Homeward is a data-driven nonprofit organization working to prevent, reduce, and end homelessness in the greater Richmond area.
Horne and her team build strategic partnerships with other Richmond service organizations and coordinate a web of networks to assist the homeless and grow Homeward’s positive impact.
When I asked Horne about her personal philosophy surrounding homelessness, she declared the issue is “solvable, It’s totally solvable.”
“One of the keys in ending homelessness is investing in housing for people with extremely low incomes,” said Horne. “Connected to that, it’s really rooted in the fact that all people have dignity and stories, and if we focus on someone’s lack of housing as who they are then we are perpetuating that problem.
Since becoming Homeward’s executive director in 2007, Horne has coordinated successful events within the homeless service provider community, including an Annual Regional Conference on Best Practices to Prevent and End Homelessness. At the conference Richmond members of the Continuum of Care discuss the innovative ways other communities are ending homelessness and how organizations can collaborate to best serve those experiencing homelessness.
Horne also brought Project Homeless Connect to Richmond, gathering 40 Richmond organizations to help to those living on the street by offering assistance obtaining birth certificates and identification, help applying for benefits, dental work, flu shots, legal services, and haircuts.
When I spoke with Horne, she shared that family homelessness in the greater Richmond area has not increased like it has in other parts of the country. Horne attributes this achievement to the changes Homeward has made in how they serve homeless families, such as through Rapid Re-Housing intervention. Rapid Re-Housing intervention is driven by the concept of “housing first” -- that those experiencing homelessness can better take care of their health, attend classes, and look for jobs once they are stabilized in a home -- and combines short-term rental assistance and case management to get families back on their feet.
By calling for more affordable housing in the area, Horne and her team have changed the homelessness narrative, While the process is slow, Horne is hopeful.
“I am encouraged by the number of conversations about affordable housing now because we are starting to get the sense of, ‘Oh wait!’,” says Horne. ”Before, we thought we couldn’t do anything about it and now we’re seeing people doing it, talking about it, hiring staff to think about it. We ARE having these conversations.”
When I asked Horne what advice she would give to other badass women looking to become innovative leaders in the fight to end homelessness, she responded, “Don’t be afraid to try something.”
Homelessness is a national crisis that sometimes feels almost too overwhelming to solve. Homeless individuals, especially women, face enormous hurdles and challenges just to stay safe each day. But the battle to end homelessness is ongoing, and many badass women like Horne are leading the movement towards affordable housing and, in turn, better lives for those who need them most.
Comments