Female rough sleeping numbers in Cumbria significantly higher than current data
Official figures are based on a snapshot of one night in Autumn
A homelessness charity in Cumbria has told our investigation into female rough sleeping that the issue is significantly bigger than current records suggest.
Official figures are based on a snapshot taken one night in Autumn of people who are visible. In Cumbria, it recorded that there was not a single woman sleeping rough across the entire region.
Alexia Murphy, Chief Executive of Depaul UK, which runs a nightstop in Cumbria, said: "Women tend to hit the street at a younger age than perhaps their male counterparts. They have predominately a history of childhood and adolescent abuse in families, domestic abuse and familial abuse and that becoming homeless is almost the next step on.
"I have no reason to believe that there aren't more women or women. The numbers for people sleeping rough as a whole has escalated in Cumbria and the North West, so there's no reason for us to believe that women aren't there and if you just think of the greater risks and dangers they face from living on the street, they tend to not have the physical strength and they're far more at risk of sexual assault and so on.
"They will do things to try and make their experience safer and that might be they'll hide away somewhere where they think fewer people will see them, they might put themselves into risker situations, they might stay at parties or go home with strangers or travel on transport to try and not put themselves at risk by sleeping on the street.
"With women, my experience has been that they tend to have much more complex needs and often they're younger than the male cohorts that they're staying with. The damage to their bodies from the drug and alcohol they take is greater for them and therefore it's imperative of us to get in there and help them away from the street more urgently and more permanently.
"I would like to see specific work around women to bring them away, to get them substance use help that they need if that's an issue, mental health support and to have safe places for them to live. Women when you first meet the they tend to not be that motivated to make changes in their lives because they're spending all of their time trying to stay safe."