24 Simon Communities in Ireland “The best thing about it accommodation is you are not allowed to have anyone in your door or be in anyone’s room. That way you don’t have anything in your face, nobody is offerin’ you anythin’. You can keep yourself to yourself, you know what I mean. That’s what I like about it anyway. It’s brilliant altogether.” (Dervla, 36) A number also reported that the structures and rules in certain services, particularly domestic violence refuges and transitional housing, had helped them to re-establish a structured routine to support day-to-day living as well as their ability to source more stable housing. “I suppose just when I came in here transitional housing, it changed my life a lot… Yeah, a lot more motivated and stuff now…I suppose I’m finding it easier now to talk to people, I kind of came out of my shell and stuff like. I’ve moved around a lot so I never really feel that settled like … I find it a lot more homely now here.” (Leah, 22) Women’s responses to, and interactions with, services were complex and, to some extent, dependent on the unique circumstances and past experiences of each individual. Nonetheless, a majority struggled with the conditions and rules within some service environments, particularly emergency homeless hostels, due in large part to the transience and chaos that characterised everyday life in these settings. Unresolved Homelessness and the Circuit of Service Use The women’s histories of homelessness were varied and diverse. Of the sixty women interviewed, twelve (20%) had been homeless for under 6 months and a further fourteen (23%) for between 6 months and 2 years. However, a larger number – thirty-four women or 56% of the sample – had experienced homelessness for a period exceeding 2 years. Twenty-one of these women (35%) reported homeless histories of more than 6 years and thirteen (21%) first experienced homelessness more than 10 years prior to interview. Thus, over half of the study’s women – almost all of Irish or UK origin – can be classified as experiencing more extreme forms of homelessness.6 These women typically described a recurring cycle of service use, that is, a pattern of moving back and forth between multiple service settings, including emergency shelters, domestic violence refuges, residential drug treatment settings, psychiatric hospitals and prison in a smaller number of cases. Their movements between these living situations frequently occurred in close succession, although a number of the women had spent longer ‘stints’ in prison or drug treatment settings amidst (often lengthy) spells in homeless hostels. Debbie’s account describes the circuit of service use commonly reported by women with homeless histories that spanned a significant proportion of their lives. “I could be here hostel for five days, in prison for two days, back out for one day, back in prison for two days, back out for three days, back in prison for a week. That is the way my life is at the moment.” (Debbie, 27) These women’s homeless ‘journeys’ were often punctuated by temporary exits from support services or institutional settings, to accommodation in the private rented sector or the homes of family members, friends or a romantic partner. However, these exits were generally short-lived 6 Seventeen migrant women participated in the research. These women came from parts of Europe (Poland, Latvia, Slovakia, Estonia, Romania and Greece), Asia (Bangladesh, The Philippines, India and Pakistan), South Africa and Bolivia. The homeless histories of the seventeen migrant women interviewed were comparatively shorter than the non-migrant women in the sample. Six of the migrant women were homeless for 5 months or less; nine women had been homeless for between 6 months and 2 years; and two women had experienced between 2 and 3 years of homelessness (see Mayock and Sheridan 2012a for a more detailed account of the migrant women in the study).
Women, Homelessness and Service Provision
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