Could you explain what your role entails?
I’m the housing caseworker, I support people to register as homeless, get into refuges, or emergency accommodation, and I give advice and guidance.
What are the main challenges for the women you work with at the moment?
Everyone’s got very different situations but situations tend to fall into a few certain scenarios: rough sleeping is one scenario, hidden homelessness is a different scenario, somebody who is looking to get placed in emergency accommodation, somebody who is in emergency or temporary accommodation or perhaps is in a hostel, might be closer to independence, might be bidding on homes, so there’s all these different scenarios and with each scenario there are different challenges. A lot of the time I think the challenges relate to a lack of understanding about the women’s needs which is most often related to trauma. When it’s our specific group of women that we work with, it’s not black and white, the one size fits all rule doesn’t work often.
Are there any moments that stand out when working with a woman around her housing?
Yeah, there’s loads! Somebody I was working with who was in an unsafe housing situation but had lived in that flat for a really long time went through a big process of trying to move and now she has moved! In doing that, she was able to engage in other support and is now in recovery. Once she was safe, she was able to think about different things and is now on this really amazing trajectory.
What do you like about working with the women?
I really like meeting all different kinds of people, learning from them. Every situation is so different, but I like the feeling of being able to help someone on a certain day, whatever that means. I like advocating for people when I feel like otherwise their situation might be misunderstood.
What could the census mean for the women?
From what I saw last night and today*, on a basic level, the people I was approaching seemed pleasantly surprised that it’s happening, and we were able to explain why we’re doing it. So for people to even feel like their experience is recognised on that micro level is great. Then on a bigger level, hopefully it’s going to inform data and statistics which can impact funding and knowledge. We know that women’s experiences of rough sleeping are really different to men’s so hopefully the result of the census is going to build a bigger picture, nationally and regionally.
*Jess was part of the team providing outreach and collecting data for Bristol’s first ever women’s rough sleeping census. This interview was conducted during the week of the census.