WOMEN and HOMELESSNESS on Woman's Hour now!

[YesTonightJosephine]

I am in tears listening to this ...

No words!

[ I was not too sure where to post this ... ]

BBC Radio 4 - Woman's Hour, Co-parenting, Homelessness and women, Dr Jessica Taylor

Will try to listen later. I know women in this situation right now so this whole issue is personally incredibly depressing to me.

Ridiculously I’ve seen threads here where posters confidently declare that councils will not see elderly women left homeless. That’s a fucking lie …

The update on this story is that the woman (56) was being evicted from her home at 11h00, a private rental flat, if I understood correctly ... need to listen to it again.

The Council, Thurrock in Kent, I think ... wrote to her telling her that she did not meet the requirements for any help with accommodation (pregnant, disability, domestic violence) and that she would be 'OK' on the streets ... they did not feel that she would be THAT vulnerable and would be able to survive!

Just to confirm this was typed in a letter to the tenant from her local Council!

I do not know what to say ... I really have no words!

I am shaking with anger and in tears ...

The vast proportion of homeless people are men, by a long way.

Yes, I am not doubting that @HeraSyndulla and sadly I do see this ... breaks my heart ...

My total and utter shock is that The Council typed a letter telling her that she would be 'OK' on the streets!

It is just beyond utter belief that someone actually typed this up and thought it was Ok!

There was an apology on air from The Council which was the first that she had heard about it!

I am sure there will be more on this story later today ...

I need to re listen to it when I am not so angry!

@TheOriginalFrench ... sadly I know too much about this situation too and I am nearly broken by it ...

I have seen those letters, @YesTonightJosephine - so am not ‘surprised’ as such.

They do completely change one’s understanding of humanity. Completely. It’s not something I could ever have imagined until I saw it.

The council said that she was at no more risk than others becoming homeless which is true. Homelessness is horrific but this woman hasn't helped herself. The article I read said that she left a job 4 years ago and hasn't worked since, her adult son who lives with her is also unemployed. It also didn't say anything about them trying to find shared housing just that they couldn't afford another 2 bed place. There is a housing crisis in this country and rents and mortgages are too expensive. But I don't get why you are crying over people who don't even bother to help themselves.

And this is why I try to avoid threads here about people in need …

My blood pressure really cannot stand sanctimonious fuckwittery from people with no understanding of lives outside their own.

Able bodied people of working age without dependent children are ultimately expected to house themselves, male or female. If she deliberately did nothing to find new housing during her notice period and stayed on until the bailiffs arrived to evict her assuming this would force the council to give her social housing despite not being in a priority group, then this was never going to work out well for her: the council simply doesn’t have the resources to accommodate everyone who would like it. I’m not sure this is a terribly good example of people who have been failed by services.

So bloody what?
Is it absolutely impossible for a forum mostly used by Women to discuss any subject at all that affects some of us without someone piping up "but what about men?"

She is not ‘elderly’ though, of working age wih an unemployed adult son.

and the irony in this comment is astonishing …

There was a woman on the news a few months back .she has to sleep in Paddington Station. Lost her
Er home to scammers apparently I disgusting! 66 and had her adult daughter with her

I am always slightly nervous about posting something like this and now I know why ...

To quote Madeleine Albright :

"There is a special place in hell for Women who don't support other Women"

@SOxon - I know the woman in question is not elderly - but I know of real life circumstances where actual elderly women have been refused even emergency help by their local council.

My point is that what appears to be the general MN viewpoint on this issue is sadly mistaken.

I just found that story. The woman was living in France for many years before losing her home in a scam and returning to the UK. She chose to spend her adult life living and paying taxes elsewhere and only returned to the UK when that went wrong. She probably has zero entitlement to support in the UK. Why do you think she should be prioritised over those who actually live here?

So we should blindly ignore the actions of women and support them in everything they demand unconditionally just because we all have vaginas?

MN, in a nutshell.

I think PP mentioned the fact more men are homeless because the tone of your post and of that program was that it’s so much worse when women are made homeless.

As an adult woman with no mitigating factors in play she is expected to house herself, her having a vagina doesn’t make a difference to this basic principle of life.

Homelessness isn’t worse when it impacts women

Almost half the people in this country who are homeless are children.

There is also a lot of research out there in to “hidden” homelessness which primarily affects women and makes them less likely to be captured in the statistics, this is particularly relevant to counts of rough sleepers.

And anyway: so? This was an article about a woman experiencing homelessness.

No, but we should be able to talk about shit happening to women, without someone piping up 'what about the menz'.

Would they go on a Christian forum and tell the posters there that Sikhs have struggles too? Or a forum for deaf people, and blame them for not centring blind people?

No, it's only women who are supposed to put everyone else first and not talk about what's tough for women until everyone else is sorted.

I have no idea if the woman mentioned on here is worthy of our sympathy or not and I would never blindly support someon ejust because we happen to be the same sex BUT it is certainly more dangerous to be a woman and homeless (if homeless means on the streets) and my point about trying to shift everything to "what about men" still stands

I would have thought it would be more dangerous being a woman living on the street.

That wasn't what I was responding to, though. I was responding to the asinine quote about women who don't support other women having a special place in hell. I made no comment about men.

Homelessness isn’t worse when it impacts women

A cursory Google (also common sense re likelihood of coming off worse in a physical altercation and likelihood of sexual assault) woud tell you that's not true

https://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2017/feb/14/homelessness-women-disadvantaged-channel-4-councils