Nine out of 10 homeless women are missing from official government figures, charities have said.
Solace Women’s Aid and Single Homeless Project have said their research shows that the current rough sleeping snapshot, carried out by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, is inadequate.
The charities blame gender-biased collection methods and say 54% of homeless women are missed out of the official government counts because they spend the night in places not classed as rough sleeping – such A&E departments, bank foyers, or on public transport.
According to the charities, women are less likely to visibly «bed down» on the street for the night due to the threat of gender-based violence.
Instead, they choose to shelter in places such as buses and trains or 24-hour cafes, meaning they are overwhelmingly missed off traditional homelessness counts.
Lucy Campbell, head of multiple disadvantage at Single Homeless Project has called it a «systemic failure», calling for the government to change how it carries its count of homeless women.
The new figures have been outlined in a census report for England, which has assessed the gap between government counts and data gathered by 88 Local Authorities.
The charities say that the government counted 680 women across 296 local authorities who were rough sleeping in 2024, but that Census Local Insights meetings identified 1,777 women across 37 local authorities that year.
Sky News followed outreach workers at Single Homeless Project for the day as they searched for women with nowhere to sleep.
Finding evidence of rough sleeping in the corner of a London park, Elise Godsal, specialist women’s navigator at Single Homeless Project, said: «This is typically where you would find women, maybe more in the day, maybe in the night as well. It’s somewhere quite secluded, still tucked away in the corner. But also, you’re still in public. So if something happened and you felt like your safety was at risk, you could still make some noise.»
Visiting a busy train station, Eabha O’Farrell, also a specialist women’s navigator at Single Homeless Project, said train stations are attractive places to rest because food and toilets are easily accessible and the women feel safe being «around a lot of other people».
Sky News also spoke to Nadia, who grew up in care and became homeless at 21.
She recounted how she went to sleep outside a Santander bank, but woke up being «kicked in the head».
She told Sky News: «I’ve got kicked, I’ve got pissed on. I’d sleep in car parks, in blocks of flats, in bin sheds. Yeah, I can make home a cardboard box if I need to».
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Ms O’Farrell and Ms Godsal check on a woman sleeping on the street
A third of women (37%) reported they had been in some form of homelessness accommodation before sleeping rough, according to the 2024 Women’s Rough Sleeping Census report.
It concludes that current services are not meeting women’s needs and aren’t enough to prevent them from sleeping rough.
A woman who completed the survey said: «I feel vulnerable. You have to rely on people who you can’t trust and don’t feel safe with. I don’t have the money to go into restaurants for shelter and have to put myself at risk and do things I don’t want to so I can get shelter for the night.»
Another said: «To keep safe for a woman is more difficult. I have been raped by people while sleeping rough in a bank doorway. I now ensure I am with a male rough sleeper at all times. I believe this is the safest option, but it doesn’t mean I am safe.»
A Ministry of Housing spokesperson said: «We inherited devastating levels of homelessness and rough sleeping and know women can be particularly affected, including those hiding from harm.
«That’s why we are taking urgent and decisive action to end homelessness – providing £1bn for crucial services this year.»