When many people picture homelessness, they often imagine someone sleeping in a doorway or under a bridge.
However, a new report suggests that this perception may be causing thousands of women experiencing homelessness to be overlooked.
The Women’s Rough Sleeping Census 2025 Report: Missing Women, produced by Single Homeless Project, Solace Women’s Aid, Crisis and Change Grow Live, has highlighted the extent to which women sleeping rough continue to be missed by official counting methods.
The Findings
The report found that:
- Up to 10 times more women were sleeping rough than official counts suggested.
- 65% of women surveyed had spent time in locations that are excluded from official counts.
- In six local authority areas, official counts recorded zero women sleeping rough, while the census identified 162 women.
These findings reveal a significant gap between official figures and the reality experienced by many women.
Why Women Are Being Missed
Women experiencing homelessness often take steps to remain hidden.
Concerns around personal safety, violence and exploitation mean that many avoid sleeping in visible public locations. Instead, they may sleep in more concealed spaces, move between temporary arrangements, stay with friends or acquaintances, or remain in unsafe situations because they feel they have no alternative.
As a result, traditional methods of counting rough sleepers can fail to capture the full picture.
The report’s title, Missing Women, reflects this reality: women are not absent from our communities, they are often absent from the data used to understand homelessness.
Why This Matters
Accurate data is essential.
When people are not counted, they are at risk of becoming invisible within policy discussions, funding decisions and service planning. This can make it harder to ensure support reaches those who need it most.
The report highlights the need for approaches that better reflect the different ways homelessness is experienced, particularly by women.
What This Means for Services
At Maggs, we know that homelessness is rarely straightforward.
Many of the people we support have experienced trauma, relationship breakdown, domestic abuse, poor mental health, financial hardship or a combination of challenges. Women’s journeys into homelessness can be especially complex and are often shaped by concerns around safety and vulnerability.
This is why understanding hidden homelessness is so important.
If we want to tackle homelessness effectively, we need to look beyond stereotypes and recognise that not everyone experiencing homelessness will be visible on the streets.
Looking Forward
The Women’s Rough Sleeping Census offers more than just a warning. It demonstrates that there are better ways to identify, understand and respond to women’s homelessness.
By improving how homelessness is measured, services and decision-makers can gain a clearer picture of need and ensure that fewer women fall through the gaps.
Because when women are missing from the data, they risk being missing from the support available to them.
Read the full report here:
🔗 Womens-Rough-Sleeping-Census-Report-2025.pdf
