The challenge to survive: trauma, violence and identity in the lived experience of homeless women

Abstract

PurposeTo understand how females who had recently been street homeless made sense of their lived experience, seven women engaged in semi-structured interviews. This study aims to provide an insight into the complexities of the gendered homeless experience, while using theories of trauma and victimisation to propose a new approach to understanding the cycle of female homelessness.Design/methodology/approachAn interpretative phenomenological analysis approach was chosen to explore the phenomenon of female homelessness. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a small homogenous sample of women recruited in a city in the south of England.FindingsTwo super-ordinate themes emerged: victimisation and trauma and the group and the individual. In the male-dominated world of homelessness, women were caught in a cycle of multiple traumatic loss, compounded by pervasive gender-based violence, struggles in identity and systematic control. Gendered, trauma-informed women’s homelessness services are required.Practical implicationsFindings demonstrate the desperate need for an expansion in female-only homelessness services. The lived experience of the participants adds to an evidence base, which is vital to inform effective trauma-informed gendered service provision.Originality/valueHomelessness policies draw principally on the prevalent literature on men; the UK research with women is lacking. This study gives voice to a hidden population, using the lived experience of women to suggest a new model of female homelessness.