8 Simon Communities in Ireland providers in sharply negative terms, with experiences of ‘objectification’ and ‘infantilisation’ commonly reported. These experiences engendered strong feelings of anger and resentment towards support agencies, with many participants choosing to avoid or ‘opt out’ of services in order to maintain their dignity and self-respect. Disengaging from services afforded homeless individuals a sense of agency and permitted them “to disappear from one grid of visibility and reappear on their own terms” (Hoffman and Coffey, 2008: 216). Positive experiences were more frequently reported in service environments that valued individuality and flexibility, which, in turn, resulted in respondents feeling more 'respected' and 'cared for'. Significant also was that the female participants, in particular, emphasised the importance of service settings that felt "like home" (p.217). According to the authors, the findings suggest that “the perpetuation of homelessness is not internal to the homeless individual as many claim, but rather may be embedded in the service industry itself, which subjects both clients and providers to bureaucratic forms of authority and experiences of disrespect” (Hoffman and Coffey, 2008: 207, emphasis in original). A number of studies have focused specifically on women’s encounters and interactions with homeless services. In the US, Jasinski et al. (2005) administered a state-wide survey to 800 homeless women (with a comparison sample of 100 men) which focused on homeless individuals’ experiences of violence. The authors depicted the women in the study as a “vulnerable population” who had experienced gender-based violence across the life course in many cases, with experiences of sexual abuse during childhood described as “the crux of this vulnerability” (p. 1). The authors also noted that homeless services were generally ill-equipped to address the deeply rooted impact of women’s past and more recent experiences of trauma. As a consequence, homeless women were deemed to be at greater risk of becoming trapped within systems of service provision and of “repeating the cycle over and over again” (Jasinski et al., 2005:1). Similarly, in the Irish context, Mayock and Sheridan (2012a) found that homeless women frequently reported multiple and overlapping support needs, including those related to childcare responsibilities, substance use, mental health problems, histories of institutionalisation and experiences of gender-based violence/abuse across the life course. While many women in the sample had been “viewed through a succession of professional lenses” they were simultaneously at risk of “falling through the gaps in policy and service provision”. The authors concluded by highlighting the need for “co-ordinated responses to homelessness that are sensitised to gender differences associated with the process of becoming homeless and the experience of homelessness itself” (Mayock and Sheridan, 2012a: 16). Focusing specifically on the experiences of homeless women, Sznajder-Murray and Slesnick’s (2011) qualitative study of 28 homeless and substance using mothers examined the women’s perceptions of services in a large Midwestern city in the US. This research found that the women tended to hold negative perceptions of practitioners and that these perceptions arose primarily from the experience of feeling judged by service providers for past mistakes and/or because of their substance use. A perceived lack of understanding on the part of service providers about the women’s individual situations and needs was strongly apparent and most mothers reported that they felt support agencies were not providing sufficient assistance and guidance. Feelings of fear and distrust were also commonly reported by the participating women and acted as a barrier to communication between staff and service users. For example, many of the women stated that they had withheld information from service providers because they feared that their children would be removed from their care or that they would be reported to government agencies. More recently, Biederman and Nichols’ (2014) qualitative study focusing on the service encounters of 15 homeless women who were accessing a homeless drop-in centre or emergency shelter in the US, found that the women’s experiences fell along a “dehumanising/humanising continuum” (p. 34). At the humanising end of this continuum,
Women, Homelessness and Service Provision
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