St Mungo’s charity launches campaign for homeless women

St Mungo's resident Lucy unveils the charity's new campaign, Rebuilding Shattered Lives

St Mungo’s charity launched a new campaign this week, focusing on women and homelessness.

According to the charity, homeless women face greater challenges than homeless men, and the new Rebuilding Shattered Lives campaign seeks to stop women becoming homeless and develop improved services for those who already are.

By 2014 St Mungo’s aims to create the first national showcase of best practice and produce a comprehensive policy report to support homeless and vulnerable women.

Charles Fraser, St Mungo’s Chief Executive, said: “Women who end up on the streets often have a complex mix of problems, but the services available to them have been mainly designed for men. These services in themselves are also facing cuts so we urgently need to look deeper and try different approaches.”

More than one in ten people found sleeping rough in London are women and over half of those living in temporary accommodation in England are women.

Each night St Mungo’s provides accommodation for over 1,700 homeless people in London, around a quarter of which are women.

The main St Mungo’s hostel in Hackney is on Mare Street and currently has 58 residents, a quarter of which are women. St Mungo’s also runs two women only hostels in London, one of which is in Hackney for women with a mix of support needs.

Women can end up on the streets through a range of traumatic experiences such as domestic violence, time spent in custody, or having their children taken into care.

Over a third (34%) of women at St Mungo’s who have slept rough said that domestic violence directly led to their homelessness and almost half (45%) are mothers.

Lucy became homeless after health problems and a marriage breakdown caused by financial worries during the recession. She said: “It’s hard for anyone without a home but I now know from experience that being a homeless woman can leave you feeling very vulnerable, afraid and not knowing where to turn.”

The campaign launch is part of the charity’s Action Week, an annual focus for raising awareness and funds. The campaign will run for 18 months.

A group of experts will gather evidence from charity and voluntary organisations throughout the UK as well as from practitioners and St. Mungo’s female clients. The campaign will examine nine themes including domestic violence, childhood trauma, prostitution, mental health, and education.

One of the experts, Jacqui McCluskey, is Director of Policy and Communications at Homeless Link, the only national charity supporting people and organisations working directly with homeless people in England.

She said: “I think this campaign, by focusing on solutions, will lead to real and lasting change and improvements. A key strength of the campaign will be the involvement of women who’ve experienced homelessness themselves, such as St Mungo’s clients. By rooting the campaign in real experiences I do believe that real change will be achieved.”

St Mungo’s is London’s biggest homeless charity and runs a range of services for homeless people including emergency shelters and skills and employment services.

At St Mungo’s Mare Street hostel, an art group allows women to express themselves creatively. Miss GG, a former homeless woman but now Hackney resident and artist, has hand crafted bead embellishments of the George Cross and the Union Jack to mark the Diamond Jubilee and Olympics.

Miss GG said: “It’s a special summer with the Diamond Jubilee and with the Olympics in East London and this is my way of marking it. I was thinking about The Queen and that I hope she gets to see these one day too. ”

Union Jack in beads by GG, St Mungo's

For more information about St Mungo’s and the Rebuilding Shattered Lives campaign visit St Mungo’s Action Week 2012.