Apart from poverty, violence in families or relationships is a major cause of homelessness. Only few homeless women live openly on the street. Due to their socialisation, many of them try to hide their homelessness for a long time. They stay with friends, partners or relatives, enter into involuntary communities, so as to escape the street, or they live in unsafe, unacceptable living conditions. Many remain in violent relationships or start new ones to find accommodation.
Homeless women do not only lack permanent shelter, but often also live in poverty and suffer from health problems, such as mental illness or drug addiction.
Neither the offers by addiction care centres nor the ones in psychiatric assistance currently meet the support needs of these women. When it comes to homeless support, there are only few locations that offer women-specific services, and their support capacities are far from sufficient. Especially for homeless women affected by violence, mixed-gender shelters represent a barrier they cannot overcome.
In order to improve the cooperation between the support system for victims of violence and homeless assistance initiatives, FHK engages in a dialogue with the Federal Working Group on Homeless Support.
Positions and Recommendations for Women with Housing Difficulties and Homeless Women, website of the Federal Working Group on Homeless Support (in German).
Empirical effect study ─ FrauenbeWegt and FrauenbeDacht, GEBEWO Social Services 2012 (PDF, in German).