Women, Homelessness and Service Provision 49 “I have an example of a lady who is completely ostracised by her own community for walking away from her husband and bringing the children with her, like completely ostracised. That was the culture of the thing … culture is really significant in some areas.” Addressing Women’s Needs: Approaches to Service Provision Greater provision of affordable, long-term housing options, as well as reduced waiting lists for social housing, were identified as key developments that would enable service providers to better assist women in sourcing secure accommodation. In general, service providers stated that they welcomed the introduction and implementation of strategies that aimed to promptly move people out of emergency accommodation. “Looking at it from the community outreach perspective I think it can work really well getting women out of residential services quicker and putting them into their own homes with support. I think that model works really well in terms of people not going back into emergency services.” However, practitioners equally emphasised the need to maintain a strong focus on person- centred, holistic strategies aimed at providing support to women in housing. In this sense, while housing was considered to be an important first response, many also stressed the need for ongoing support systems to address, for example, mental health problems, substance use and practical issues related to independent living skills subsequent to an individual moving to independent accommodation. Indeed, the transition to independent living situations was consistently identified as a significant point of vulnerability for female service users. For this reason, the role of key workers, as well as more robust aftercare/follow-on support for women and their children and/or partners, were considered to be imperative. “Women are coming in with very different levels of need. It’s kind of back into preparing them towards independence and putting supports in place to help them manage the issues that put them into homelessness to begin with, you know. So it’s ongoing mental health and addiction support and the usual so it’s very varied really.” “Kids themselves are maybe experiencing trauma too so the whole package just needs to be explored.” Many service providers also spoke about the value of community-based supports, including day centres, peer support groups, training programmes or schemes and childcare facilities in terms of helping women to socialise and reintegrate into society. These supports were considered to be particularly important for women who may experience loneliness and isolation after the move to independent living situations. Women whose children have been placed in State or relative care were considered to be particularly vulnerable. “Preferably community … get them into a nice area and get them children to school, get them involved in activities and things like that, you know ‘normal’. Whereas at the moment it’s difficult, that transition from emergency shelters it’s very difficult.” A dominant and recurring theme to emerge from the service provider narratives centered on the need for flexibility in service provision, particularly in relation to the provision of tailored and malleable support plans that are reviewed and adjusted according to women’s level of need at various junctures.
Women, Homelessness and Service Provision
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