First ever housing only for women

'If single sex housing is wanted and justified, it needs to be SINGLE SEX.'

Exactly. It's not rocket science

What is the point? The kind of women who are happy to share with men who say they are women can just live in ordinary housing. If single sex housing is wanted and justified, it needs to be SINGLE SEX.

FFS, I'm really running out of patience, here.

Indeed - there have been women-only alms houses pretty much as long as there have been alms houses. Not far off a thousand years

Way longer than that because many monasteries/convents provided forms of housing on their sites for the elderly. Definitely around by the 8th century, maybe earlier.

There are beautiful ( Edwardian?) Low rise women only blocks on Hampsted Heath

Yeah, I agree, as long as they are upfront about the barking mad rules.

Indeed - there have been women-only alms houses pretty much as long as there have been alms houses. Not far off a thousand years.

Agree with everyone, not really for women then. I guess the only plus point is that hopefully most tenancy contracts will be held by women.

Many years ago Housing for Women built a lovely row of houses at the end of my road in London (after the tenants in the postwar prefabs were "persuaded" to move). Lots of meetings with residents to persuade us all not to oppose planning as the houses were only for vunerable women and their children. A chance to rebuild their lives and then move on when they had new relationships. Within days most houses had men living in them too.

Yeah, I was thinking that. So it's not really a space for women without men, it's that women will be the tenancy agreement and can in theory be in charge of who lives there but well, you know.

How are they going to differentiate between a 'transgender woman' who wears women's clothes every now and then (the Suzeddie Izzard kind of trans) and cross-dressing men who wear women's clothes every now and then?

Also, won't someone think of the enbys?

I don't know how a journalist could write the following with a straight face:

"The only way a tenant could be male is if they are the adult child of a female tenant and inherit the tenancy. Transgender women, including people intending to undergo gender reassignment, will be allowed, but men who cross-dress, transgender men, and anyone with a known history of male violence against women or children will not."

So straight after saying that the only way a tenant could be male (not a man, but male) is to be an adult child of a woman tenant, they say that transgender women including people who are only intending to "undergo gender reassignment" can be tenants! So male then! And then they exclude transmen, who are female! Addled nonsense.

Women's Pioneer is in west London.

Housing for Women is (as far as I know) the only other women's housing provider in London. They are in south London. https://www.hfw.org.uk/about-us/who-we-are/

There may well be what are legally defined as Alms Houses. These have usually been set up by someone or a society with enough money to provide a small amount of housing. (They aren't all those classic squares of very small cottages).

And depending of their founding principles may well have a clause such as "for the provision of housing for distressed spinsters in the (area). In fact my mother got a really rather nice flat in such a place, and we went to an interview to prove that she was "a distressed gentlewoman". I wore pearls which I had never done up until then and have never since. (We weren't quite sure what a gentlewoman was and somehow thought this would be part of being one!!) https://www.almshouses.org/resident-vacancies/finding-an-almshouse-charity/

One of the problems in advertising this housing as being 'for women' but in reality allowing men, is that the type of women it will attract are those who are vulnerable and the type of men who it attracts will be those who have a problem with respecting women's boundaries. What could possibly go wrong?

The only way a tenant could be male is if they are the adult child of a female tenant and inherit the tenancy.

From the link.

Surely The Guardian aren't publishing articles that are factually incorrect?

Mind you, when you stop being able to define what a woman is, I guess a lot of other facts can slip over time too.

I think you may be right. Didn’t Miriam Margolyes visit a housing association for older women?

It looked like a marvellous place to be.

(apologies if I’ve got muddled with something else)

Also, as HA tenancies as well as council housing tenancies can be swopped, wonder how they will manage that eg older lesbian sees opportunity to retire to a nice bungalow by the sea but the person wanting to do the swop is male.

Can imagine that not far into the future it would bet waved through.

This might well be the first tower block for women, but I'm pretty sure there's already women-only housing somewhere in West London.

Isn’t excluding trans men against some principle or the other? Is it just all down to self certification now, then.

I suppose trans men will be pleased at the validation.

First Fawcett, then Girl Guides, now Women's Pioneer.

We want our stuff back:

4w.pub/a-message-to-those-recently-opining/

I heard about this and figured it would soon be full of males.

For those of you who aren't familiar with housing association tenancies you cant inherit.

I did post the link to the waiting list which shows their criteria.

'So basically men can inherit it and live in it, move into it with a female partner or put a pink frock on and live in it.'

Yep. Almost like it's a complete waste of time!

An ordinary block of flats then.

And only labelled as women only so they can show how inclusive they are by including men.

Wonderful…

So basically men can inherit it and live in it, move into it with a female partner or put a pink frock on and live in it.