International Women's Day 2025: government must accelerate action to build the social homes we need

By Deborah Garvie , Policy Manager

On Saturday 8 March we'll mark International Women’s Day 2025. Women worldwide will come together to celebrate success, call out stereotypes, challenge discrimination, question bias, share our knowledge and encourage others.

The theme this year is #Accelerate Action, emphasising the need for swift and decisive steps to achieve gender equality by addressing the systemic barriers and biases women face.

An age-old trope is 'a woman’s place is in the home'. As long ago as 467 BC, Greek playwright Aeschylus insultingly wrote: 'Let women stay at home and hold their peace'. But women have far from held their peace about housing rights – and right now many don't have a home.

Last week's government homelessness statistics for England reminded us that more and more women are without a home. So, we must fight for accelerated action from the government to tackle our housing emergency.

Sleeping rough: the tip of the iceberg

680 women were recorded as sleeping rough in last autumn's official snapshot.

While women made up only 15% of the total 4,667 people recorded sleeping rough, their numbers have increased at a disproportionate rate in recent years. The number of women sleeping rough has more than doubled (111%) since 2021, when the government’s 'Everyone In' pandemic response was still keeping people off the streets.

And this is likely an undercount. Women are campaigning to be properly counted in government statistics. To be recorded under the government's definition of a rough sleeper, you must be 'bedded down' (lying down or sleeping) or about to bed down (sitting in/on or near bedding). But many women are simply too afraid to do this. Instead, as Maxine Brown describes, fear drives women to keep moving at night or to go anywhere they feel safe: A&E, stations, night buses.

The effects of street homelessness can be lethal. In the UK as a whole, women made up 26% of the 1,474 people whose deaths were reported to the Dying Homeless Project in 2023. Women who are homeless die younger than men: in England their average age of death is just 47 years, compared to 49 years for men.

Homeless in temporary accommodation: hidden from view

Because street homelessness is the publicly visible tip of the iceberg, many people assume the majority of people who are homeless are men. However, the government's statutory homelessness statistics last week show a very different picture: women are starkly over-represented among homeless households.

The statistics revealed a new shameful record of over 126,000 households homeless in temporary accommodation. The majority of adults in temporary accommodation are women. Most of them are mothers with dependent children under 18. Lone mother families make up a third of all households in temporary accommodation.

'It's hard as a mother to say these things out loud – as it's unimaginable, it's unspeakable... [People] are terrified to say they're struggling as they fear their parenting being judged.' - Shelter research steering group member

This means lone mother families are hugely over-represented among households homeless in temporary accommodation in England. They make up just 22% of families in the general population but represent 58% of families in temporary accommodation.

And some mothers are at more risk than others. Those with disabilities, or a disabled child, face disproportionate risks. Black-led households are significantly overrepresented in temporary accommodation, making up just 4% of the general population but representing 21% of the households who are homeless in temporary accommodation.

'I'm stuck in this cage where I can't afford anything. I'm forced to live in poverty when I'm a capable person. I'm having to turn down work.' - Shelter research steering group member

The impacts on mothers and children are appalling: poor mental and physical health, harder to work, pushed into abject poverty, isolated and alone in accommodation miles from jobs, schools, family and friends. Just listen to Natasha's account of life as a new mum in temporary accommodation.

Why are lone mother households more likely to be homeless?

Lone parent families (predominantly lone mothers) are more at risk of homelessness for an obvious reason: they struggle to compete in the market for a family home. They're restricted to one income and are often also juggling childcare, which means either part-time work or extra costs. When looking to rent a family home from a private landlord, they face stiff competition from couples and adult sharers with more than one income. They can also face discrimination from landlords.

Government support to help people afford rent, and prevent homelessness, remains inadequate. A third of private renters (1.7 million) rely on local housing allowance (LHA), which is supposed to help them afford the cheapest third (30th percentile) of local rents. But while rents continue to soar, the government's freeze on LHA is making it increasingly difficult for councils to prevent homelessness. Already, in numerous areas, LHA barely covers the cheapest 5-10% of rents, making it extremely hard to rent a family home.

This is compounded by the discriminatory impacts of the household benefit cap: an austerity measure continuing to bite harder each year. It effectively further restricts entitlement to local housing allowance and housing benefit. Of the 123,000 households affected by the cap, 71% are lone parents with children, including babies and pre-schoolers. It’s almost impossible for capped families to afford a private rental anywhere in England: a capped lone mother with three children living in some parts of London is left with just ￡44 a week after paying her housing costs. The cap has a disproportionate impact on survivors of domestic abuse (mainly women) and their children.

Women's rights to a home: accelerate action on social homes

This is why the chance of a family home offered by a council or housing association, at a social rent based on local incomes, is so vital in allowing families (and especially lone parent families) to thrive. So many people who are successful today were made in social housing.

We regularly work with women who have suddenly become lone mothers following a traumatic event: the death of a partner, relationship breakdown or surviving domestic abuse.

It's not a new phenomenon. In the aftermath of the first world war, there were many lone mother families who faced a life of poverty, homelessness and the workhouse due to a lack of government protection. So, economist and suffragist Lettice Fisher formed the National Council for the Unmarried Mother and her Child (now Gingerbread) to provide accommodation and campaign for change.

The housing emergency after the second world war saw lone mothers struggle to access a family home they could afford. In 1964, the National Council reported 'even the professional woman earning a good salary found it was difficult for a single woman with a dependent to obtain a lease or a mortgage'. In the 1970s, housing activist Olive Morris and the Brixton Black Women's Group took direct action to demand housing rights for homeless women. And in 2013, a determined group of young, homeless, lone mothers took action via the Focus E15 campaign.

The fight goes on. Last November, at a Women's Housing Forum and Shelter online 'lunch and learn', lone mothers with direct experience of homelessness in temporary accommodation, having fled domestic abuse, spoke passionately of the impact on themselves and their children. They emphasised the huge difference it made to finally move into a safe, permanent and (most importantly) affordable social home. The Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance argues that addressing the chronic shortage of social rent homes is crucial for meeting the housing needs of domestic abuse survivors.

What must the government do? Invest in social homes

The government has promised that 'women's equality will be at the heart of our missions', including a 'landmark mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade'.

This must begin with homes. And it's decision time. We're now three months away from the first woman Chancellor's Spending Review on 11 June. If the government is serious about women's rights, gender equality, ending homelessness and child poverty, and supporting survivors of domestic abuse, it must accelerate its action. It must decide to invest in the social homes we desperately need to end our housing emergency: at least 90,000 a year for the next 10 years.

The government must respond to the unanimous calls of women stuck homeless on the streets and with their children in damaging temporary accommodation, housing campaigners, child poverty experts and survivors of domestic abuse. Their demand is clear: invest in a new generation of social rent homes.

What can you do? Join the fight

You can add your voice to the calls for change, for an end to the housing emergency that so many women are enduring right now.

Email your MP and tell them it's time to make the right decision: invest in the social homes we need to put a stop to growing homelessness among women.

Donate to help us campaign for change and support more women to avoid homelessness and fight for their rights to a suitable, settled home.

Learn about your housing rights via our free and expert advice.