The Young Women’s Trust, a feminist organisation aiming for economic and social equality for women, is setting out to tackle the ongoing crisis in housing for young women.
Under current welfare policies, single young women can only claim housing benefit on a room in shared housing. The Shared Accommodation Allowance in 2012 reclassified who counts as a ‘young individual’ by raising from 25 to 35 the age required to claim one-bedroomed (self-contained) accommodation.
In response to this change, the Equalities Impact Assessment (EIA) claimed that the rate was fair as the majority of people affected by the change would be men. In fact, the rate has placed many vulnerable young women in totally unsuitable housing situations. The EIA also failed to see that since women claiming the Shared Accommodation Allowance are in a minority, they are often forced into sharing accommodation with loads of men.
Research conducted by Dr Eleanor Wilkinson at the University of Southampton has shown that many women feel unsafe, especially domestic abuse survivors, and they find it difficult to recover in these spaces. In these interviews, many women also reported that their needs are not being listened to when they speak out about shared accommodation as daunting, scary and unsafe.
Young mothers with non-resident children are also suffering because the age for claiming benefit for self-contained accommodation has been raised. These mothers often find themselves in a Catch 22: they are told they cannot claim the higher rate for housing benefit because their children don’t live with them; then they are told that they cannot have their children back because they are living in shared accommodation.
At a panel event hosted by the Young Women’s Trust, a group of young women chose to speak out about the problems they have experienced first-hand. All of these women wished to remain anonymous.
One woman pointed out that “young women and young mums especially, are not told what they’re entitled to, you have to learn as you go.” Another explained that her housing association refused to let her end the shared tenancy she had with an abusive partner who threatened to kill her and her daughter. Even a non-molestation order was not enough to make the housing association offer her safe accommodation.
Another young woman reported moving into a council flat and becoming a victim of hate crime. After routinely expressing her concerns for the safety of herself and her child, she was evicted and classified as ‘intentionally homeless’, even though at the time her rent account was in credit. She then found a private landlady who after a while claimed she owed four months’ rent amounting to £6000. At the time, she had her two sons and mother living with her, and was told she had to pay £17 a week to cover the cost of council tax. As a result of stress caused by her housing situation, she was sectioned under the Mental Health Act while pregnant. After finding out what she was entitled to, she was finally relocated – except the only suitable accommodation for her was in Yorkshire, despite her entire support network residing in London.
Sophie Walker, Young Women’s Trust CEO, insists that “housing is a feminist issue”, and with women’s refuges and hostels having to turn women away because of reduced budgets, the issue is becoming even more serious. She summed up how this is a problem for the whole of society: “when young women miss out, we all miss out”.
“Homeless woman with dogs” by Franco Folini is licensed under CC BY-SA
