The Manchester Evening News reported that ‘77 percent of women from the UK’s largest women’s prison faced homelessness on release in July 2021.’ Women leaving prison continue to struggle to get access to adequate housing. Seeking shelter has become an increasingly pressing issue with imminent cold weather ahead, which is exacerbated by the continuing housing crisis.
Incarcerated women are more likely than men to become homeless when released from prison, Ministry of Justice data shows. This has proven to be a continuing criminal justice issue with very little to no effort made by the Homelessness Reduction Act (2017) to address the housing needs of vulnerable women. Out of necessity, many women released from prison turn to sex work in exchange for a place to sleep, says Dr. Jenny Earle, from the Safe Homes for Women Leaving Prison initiative.
The recent crisis comes almost a year after the Safe Homes for Women Leaving Prison in collaboration with the Prison Reform Trust released a report calling for “urgent action by actors across the criminal justice system to combat failings that result in 6 in 10 women released from prison, many of them suffering from multiple vulnerabilities, without access to safe and secure housing.”
Unfortunately, a lack of secure and safe housing can lead women back to prison, says the Prison Reform Trust. Some women commit further crimes out of necessity, thereby trapping them in an ongoing cycle of offending. It is not uncommon for women return to custody just to avoid homelessness.
A lack of stable accommodation is a significant barrier to successful rehabilitation because ‘it makes it harder for women to secure employment or training, arrange benefits, and re-establish contact with children and families.’
Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, believes that the government is not doing enough to support previously incarcerated women facing homelessness. Neate says that ‘to end homelessness for good and give people a real chance of a secure and stable home, building decent social housing is the only answer.’
