Women, Homelessness and Service Provision 41 “I like the fact that I can’t drink in here current accommodation. It’s good because it keeps me on my toes … it keeps me from doing anything stupid. I have a key worker in here too, she’s brilliant. Like if I’m having one of them days, a bad day, or having trouble or anything, I can just go straight out to her or she’ll come out to me and it helps.” Melissa spoke about the challenge of sourcing appropriate accommodation in a highly constrained and competitive rental market: “There’s nothing out there, there’s absolutely nothing out there. I’ve done everything, there’s nothing that would suit me or my kids”. She was also acutely aware that she might require support with the transition to independent housing since she had spent most of the past 11 years of her life living in residential settings, including homeless support services and treatment facilities. “I’m not thinking about that independent living right now. I’ve another year and a half to go in here current accommodation … Because I wasn’t used to living on my own, I was either in the post-treatment aftercare or I was with my sister or I was in residential treatment or had people around me … it’s just getting me back into society and getting me ready to go back out into the big bad world as I call it.” A key feature of Melissa’s story was that her homeless ‘career’ was characterised by multiple entry points to situations of housing instability. Thus, her narrative highlights a distinct lack of early intervention in relation to her experiences of domestic violence and parental substance misuse during her childhood. Indeed, she identified these experiences as the root cause of her own alcohol dependency, which in turn impacted her ability to sustain housing in later years: “The biggest part of my drinking issue was because of my past life and my childhood. That’s why I was a drinker, it helped me block out all my childhood”. Her experiences of homeless services during childhood had also acted as a deterrent to her accessing support services throughout the duration of an abusive relationship: “I wouldn’t bring my kids into domestic violence services; they’re not places for kids”. Melissa’s story also reveals a perceived need for accommodation that provides substance-free environments for recovering substance users. In the following quote she identifies this perceived gap in service provision, describing her experience of being placed in inappropriate accommodation following a stay in a residential treatment facility. “Homeless services need to change an awful lot … I was put into a homeless service when I came out of rehab, I walked in and the first thing I thought was, ‘I need a drink’ ... When you’re going through all that treatment for three weeks, what’s the point? There’s no logic to this, they need to make places where there is no alcohol, just a clean, safe environment if you want to stay sober or drug free.” At the time of interview Melissa’s priorities were to remain abstinent and find secure housing that would be appropriate for her and her children: “I’m used to chaos. It’s just the peace and quiet I want now”.
Women, Homelessness and Service Provision
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