This book marks a critical contribution in assessing and extending the evidence base on the causes and consequences of women’s homelessness. Drawing together work from Europe’s leading homelessness scholars, it presents a multidisciplinary and comparative analysis of this acute social problem, including its relationship with domestic violence, lone parenthood, motherhood, health and well-being and women’s experience of sustained and recurrent homelessness. Working from diverse perspectives, the authors look at the responses to women’s homelessness in differing cultures and regions, and within various forms of welfare states. They focus in particular on relating the gender dimensions of welfare and social policy to women’s experiences when they become homeless. This innovative and timely edited volume will appeal to students and scholars of sociology, social policy, anthropology, and gender and women’s studies, along with international policy-makers.

This unique volume provides, for the first time, a picture of the nature and causes of homelessness among women across the European member states. Its findings will stimulate further research and encourage transnational cooperation in the development of appropriate policies and support services.Women and homelessness in Europe:considers the gender-specific issues contributing towards homelessness among women in Europe;assesses the contribution of economic and social change to the risk of homelessness;examines the changing composition of the female homeless population;describes the pattern and evaluates the effectiveness of service provision available to homeless women;explores the experiences of homeless women using these services.

Women’s rough sleeping is a major issue across Europe and is especially problematic within the current economic climate. Based on a European Union DAPHNE III-funded project, this important book tells the story of the women and organisations that took part in the study. Revealing a number of truths about women’s rough sleeping across Europe, the authors argue that there is little or no specific provision for this vulnerable and hard to reach group. The book focuses on the adoption of effective policy, strategies and services to meet the needs of homeless women, specifically women rough sleepers who are the victims of domestic abuse. It will be a valuable resource for academics and students of criminology, social policy, law, social work and probation, as well as housing/homelessness practitioners, policy makers, local authorities and NGOs.

The authors reveal a number of truths about women's rough sleeping across Europe and argue for the adoption of effective policy, strategies and services to meet the needs of homeless women and the specific problem of women rough sleepers who are the victims of domestic abuse.

First published in 1999. The phenomenon of homelessness is not new, but it has only recently been perceived as a social problem in European Member States. Even in the early 1990s little was known about the paths in and out of homelessness. This volume presents the papers arising from EUROHOME: Emergency and Transitory Housing for Homeless people: Needs and Best Practices. This project enabled a review of the state of knowledge in the field, an analysis of recent trends and a discussion of the prospects for improvement in the prevention of homelessness and the public response to housing in Europe. EUROHOME, and this collection, thus bring together experts in the study of: *

The Routledge Handbook of Homelessness brings together many of the world’s leading scholars in the field to provide a cutting-edge overview of classic and current research and future trends in the subject. Comprising 41 chapters and divided into four sections, the handbook includes A comprehensive introduction to homelessness, referring to history, culture, causation and definitions. Contemporary and historical debates around homelessness in different academic disciplines. Homelessness relating to gender, sexuality, youth, families, migration, rurality, veterans and health. A range of country-specific studies to illustrate the ways in which homelessness is researched and understood around the world. Methods of engagement and modes of analysis. With contributors from around the world and editors from the Centre of Housing Policy at the University of York, this handbook provides a groundbreaking and authoritative guide to theory, method and the primary interdisciplinary debates of today on homelessness. It will be essential reading for students, academics and professionals across the disciplines of sociology, human geography, public policy, housing policy, social policy, social work, economics and criminology.

The homeless person is thought to be different. Whereas we get to determine our difference or sameness, the homeless person’s difference is imposed upon them and assumed to be known because of their homelessness. Exclusion from housing – either a commodity that should be accessed from the market or social provision – signifies the homeless person’s incapacities and failure to function in what are presented as unproblematic social systems. Drawing on a program of research spanning ten years, this book provides an empirically grounded account of the lives and identities of people who are homeless. It illustrates that people with chronic experiences of homelessness have relatively predictable biographies characterised by exclusion, poverty, and trauma from early in life. Early experiences of exclusion continue to pervade the lives of people who are homeless in adulthood, yet they identify with family and normative values as a means of imaging aspirational futures.