20 Simon Communities in Ireland during childhood, started “running” at the age of 16 years: “I was running from me father like, I was escaping all the time … I would be sleeping out and I would come home again and it sexual abuse would start again and I would be gone again. It was just a vicious circle like” (Stephanie, 32). Like Stephanie, many other women reported that the early stages of their homelessness were characterised by a lack of service engagement and several actively avoided contact with homeless services, in particular, which they perceived to be unclean, intimidating, frightening and/or unsafe: “They’re hostels horrible, horrible. Most of them are anyway … it’s all addicts” (Caoimhe, 35). Many had ‘heard stories’ about the conditions and ‘culture’ within homeless services and the stigma of homelessness also emerged as a strong barrier to service access, as Grainne’s account demonstrates. “I ended up homeless. But I wouldn’t ring the free phone, I wouldn’t go stay in any hostels because the stories I heard of them were terrifying, do you know what I mean, terrifying ... I saw them hostels for really down and out people who had nowhere to go… I didn’t want to kind of let people see that I was weak.” (Grainne, 31) During the initial weeks and months following their first homeless experiences, many women tried to source alternative accommodation and entered into situations of ‘hidden’ homelessness, staying temporarily – or for prolonged periods, in some cases – in the homes of friends, relatives and/or acquaintances: “You know, every surface or sofa, you may call it; that’s what I did”’ (Laura, 33). A smaller number reported that they had slept rough or remained in volatile or abusive home situations in order to avoid entering the hostel ‘scene’. Krystal explained that she continued to live with an abusive partner in order to avoid homeless support services. “I suppose the relationship got pretty bad; there were various different kinds of abuse. He partner moved into a really small bedsit, like it was about quarter the size of this referring to current accommodation, it was tiny, it was about that size with a bed and a kitchen and all that and tiny little chair all set up down the hall. And even though we fought all the time I didn’t want to stay in hostel, so the two of us were staying in that space.” (Krystal, 32) For a whole host of reasons, these informal and/or unsafe living arrangements invariably became unsustainable, forcing women to present to homeless (or other) support services, typically at a point when they had exhausted all personal and financial resources. Irena, for example, told that she became homeless after she left her abusive husband of two years. She initially slept rough and stayed with a friend before presenting to a domestic violence refuge for the first time. “I slept under the stairway of the building and I stayed for a couple of nights with an ex- colleague of mine, for two, three nights but I was not very welcome there so I had to leave, I even pay €50 just for the three days and ok the domestic violence service told me they have some kind of a room to go to and stay there.” (Irena, 52) Thus, a large number of the study’s women presented to services at a crisis point in their lives, which frequently coincided with diminished mental health (including suicidal ideation in some cases) and/or reports of elevated alcohol and/or drug use. Grace was first admitted to a psychiatric hospital following an attempted overdose while Dervla explained that she decided to place her children in State care and access treatment services at a point when her alcohol use had spiralled out of control.
Women, Homelessness and Service Provision
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