Counting the 'invisible' homeless women hiding in plain sight

Two charity workers speak to a female rough sleeper in Victoria Station

It's early morning near London's Victoria Station, and three charity workers are meeting to carry out a count of female rough sleepers.

The weather has just started to turn chilly, and thoughts have turned to those - particularly women - sleeping out on the streets.

"We've known for years that women's rough sleeping is underestimated, from women's own accounts of their situation," explains Lucy Campbell, assistant director at Single Homeless Project.

"But there was never any data to back that up. So in 2022 we worked with Solace Women's Aid and a number of other organisations to design a way to go out and give voice to some of these women's experiences."

The Women's Rough Sleeping Census, carried out annually since 2022, asks a series of questions about where homeless women are sleeping.

A team from two charities has been looking for homeless women in public toilets and fast food restaurants

Homeless men often bed down in sleeping bags and tents and are therefore more visible, but for safety concerns, many female rough sleepers don't.

They're more likely to sleep on buses and in fast food restaurants, or walk around all night with their belongings.

Through this study, homeless charities suggest there are more than 10 times as many women sleeping rough in England than government data indicates.

It's the first time a BBC journalist has been asked to accompany a team on this count.

The Women's Rough Sleeping Census asks a series of questions about how and where women are rough sleeping

First stop is the women's toilets at Victoria Station, where the team finds three homeless women washing their clothes in the sink.

While Lucy gets them to fill in the questionnaire in return for a £10 food voucher each, Ella and Kathryn approach a bundled-up person wearing a disposable mask who is sleeping on a bench in the train station, and at first they're not sure if they are male or female.

Homeless women will often try to disguise their gender for safety reasons. Sexual violence is always a risk.

The person turns out to be a 59-year-old woman who has been homeless since at least 2016.

"She ticked off all the boxes of 'where have you slept; outside, in stations, in cafes, in libraries, in hospitals?'" explains Ella Johnson, senior manager at Solace's Westminster Service Housing First.

"She is really transient in the way she is sleeping rough and doesn't seem like she is accessing support from anybody at the minute."

The team take her details so that an outreach team can make contact with her.

'I'm very vulnerable as a woman'

Outside the station is a young woman begging. The team ascertain that she isn't street homeless, take her details, offer her a voucher and move on.

Not being street homeless doesn't necessarily mean she isn't at risk, but it does mean she can't take part in this research.

But it isn't long before they meet 42-year-old Laura outside a phone shop, who arrived in London three days before.

Laura agrees to do an interview on camera. She tells me she's hoping to reconnect with her daughter who she says lives in the capital.

"Eleven years married, three children. My husband started drinking alcohol, started getting on the whisky and then he divorced me," she says.

That was six years ago and she's been sleeping rough ever since.

"Car parks, old buildings, squats. I'm very vulnerable as a woman being out here, outdoors.

"It's very hard for a female to be outdoors. You get a lot of males approaching females offering sex."

Kathryn Parsons, from Solace Women's Aid, says women's experiences of rough sleeping are "fundamentally different from men's"

Kathryn Parsons, public affairs and partnerships manager for Solace, says the women they have spoken to during the count "are experiencing violence both as a cause and a consequence of their rough sleeping".

"We've spoken to a woman today who is heavily pregnant and not being supported for her pregnancy or for her mental health or for her housing," she continues.

"We've also spoken to women who have now been given some accommodation but prior to that they had been rough-sleeping for 10 years and they weren't seen by the government.

"Other than the near-universal experience of violence that women experience, women's rough sleeping is transient, it's hidden, it's intermittent. Their experiences are fundamentally different from men's."

Kathryn adds: "The government wants to turn the tide on homelessness, the government wants to halve VAWG (violence against women and girls).

"Neither of those things will be achieved if they don't recognise that women's experience is different to men, and they support the women that are on the streets or hiding because it's too dangerous."

It is hoped that by building a clearer picture of the scale of the problem and issues women are facing, women's charities can lobby the government for more support for them.

A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: "The Women's Census helps us understand the challenges women face when getting the right support.

"We're spending £1bn on vital services so that women who are sleeping rough can get safe and appropriate help.

"This is a first step to get us back on track towards ending homelessness once and for all."

The 2025 Women Rough Sleeping Census started on Monday and continues until Sunday.

If you've been affected by some of the issues raised in this article please visit BBC Action Line for advice and support.