Women, Homelessness and Service Provision 45 In the months that followed, her drug use escalated and her life became increasingly chaotic. It was at this point that she voluntarily placed her daughter in the care of relatives and left the family home. She told that she felt she had “nowhere to go” during this time and was left with no other option than to sleep rough for a seven-week period. She reflected on these weeks, noting that she had little or no support or assistance from either formal or informal sources. “I was terrified. The nights were getting scarier and scarier, the freezing cold winter nights, lashing rain and I was all on my own. I had no one; no friends, no family, no nothing, no money, no address, no nothing.” Jessica first presented to emergency services after hearing about them from other women she met while she was living on the street. She initially described a fraught relationship with service providers which resulted in her being “thrown out” of hostels on a regular basis: “They staff in hostel always found a reason to get rid of me”. Unable to cope with these constant upheavals and feelings of uncertainty, Jessica presented to another emergency hostel where she was able to gain some level of stability: “They’ve done everything for me in here hostel, if it wasn’t for them I’d be dead. They saved my life”. She described a particularly positive relationship with her key worker who subsequently referred her to a residential substance use treatment service. Over the next year or so, Jessica resided in that residential treatment setting and also returned to the family home intermittently, although these stays were generally short-lived: “There was just fights, fights, fights”. At the time of interview, having recently returned to emergency homeless services, she told that she was finding it difficult to cope. Her perceived needs related primarily to her ongoing physical and mental health problems as well as to her addiction issues: “I need to get myself better and then I could start thinking about everything else”. Jessica talked at length about her past traumatic experiences and considered that these were the root causes of her substance use and depression in later life. Her narrative highlights a lack of early intervention, particularly in relation to the domestic violence and sexual abuse she experienced during childhood: “It keeps dragging me down, I re-live those days every single day. When I think back on all that’s happened, it really hurts’. Jessica expressed extreme anxiety as well as hopelessness about her situation, stating that she was not clear about what the immediate future holds in terms of finding stable accommodation: “It’s hard to see a way out. I really don’t want this life, I just want to get better. I just want a better life”. Service Provider Perspectives Accommodating Homeless Women: Some Challenges in Service Provision Irrespective of gender, a lack of affordable and appropriate move-on options was repeatedly highlighted by service providers as a significant barrier to housing homeless individuals. This gap in provision creates significant ‘blockages’ in the system, according to practitioners, resulting in many individuals remaining in short or medium- term accommodation services for prolonged periods of time. “You get someone to save a deposit, you get their rent allowance; but there is no apartment. You have managed to work with this person in order for them to empower themselves, to do something positive, and then at the end of it you go, ‘You’re going to have to wait for a little bit because there is no property.’”
Women, Homelessness and Service Provision
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