WORLD WORLDWIDE SPAIN News Journal Update - (en) Spaine, CNT, #435 - Women and homelessness, made invisible by the system - Laura Maeztu (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 That poverty has a woman's face is an unquestionable statement, but

where are the homeless women if according to the statistics and at first
glance there are more men in a situation of homelessness than women? The
lords will have already sharpened their teeth on this issue, relax, we
are not exaggerating, we are exposing reality, no matter how much it
hurts. ---- People made invisible by the system. Because the citizens
themselves do not want to see and because the institutions have never
ensured the right to decent housing, decent work or mental health.
Despite the fact that the most extreme face takes place on the street,
reducing this problem to these situations gives us a restricted and
partial vision of reality, making women who suffer other types of
residential exclusion more invisible.

Within the meaning of 'home' there are three aspects to take into
account: the physical aspect or safe space where you can be; the social
aspect or right to privacy; and the legal aspect that gives you the
right to be there. The absence of these three dimensions leads us to
situations of homelessness in which a person who sleeps on the street is
homeless, but so is a person who is forced to sleep on the floor of a
room or who has nowhere to go. Also a person who is forced to sleep in a
hostel or refuge, in a substandard housing or pending eviction.

Most of the figures from studies on homelessness arise from an analysis
exclusively of the situation of lack of a home, leaving aside any other
series of situations of precariousness or vulnerability in housing. By
limiting this definition, women are less represented because they
develop strategies in order to avoid ending up on the street or going to
certain resources overnight, since they perceive them as particularly
hostile due to the greater risk of exposure to violence and abuse.

If living on the street poses a real threat, for women that threat is
greater: Sexist violence joins aporophobia.

Strategies that are conditioned by the strong weight of the role of
women in the home. Many of them with the weight of experiencing it as a
personal failure or with the nightmare that involves the withdrawal of
custody of their sons and daughters if they have them. If living on the
street poses a real threat, in the case of women that threat is greater.
Aggressions, insults, discrimination, physical and sexual violence and
murders. Sexist violence joins aporophobia.

Any alternative is better than living on the street, be it sharing a
home with family or friends, working as an intern in a house, continuing
to live with a partner who mistreats them, sleeping in the car, renting
a sofa or a storage room. They are just examples of how women avoid
being on the street. Because no, shelters, regulated from an
androcentric vision, are not safe places for them.

They go through an endless number of stressful life events, experiences
that play a key role in people's lives and that imply significant
changes in behaviors with the environment. For this reason, when a woman
becomes homeless, she does so in worse conditions than men, because the
process to reach that point is much longer and, consequently, it is more
difficult to get out.

During the day the hours pass slowly with nowhere to go. If she has some
economic resource, she can enter a bar and ask for a drink to go to the
bathroom. That you have your period and you cannot change a pad calmly
without having to develop a prior strategy to avoid doing it on the
street or, simply, you may not even have one. Or wash you. Or having
relations with a man in the same situation in exchange for having a
little protection on the street. Always trying to go unnoticed in the
face of the risks they run.

Comprehensive approach, tailored solutions
To address the problem of homelessness for women, a comprehensive and
evidence-based approach is necessary. This includes providing affordable
resources, as well as safe and stable accommodation. It is also
necessary to address sexual violence and all sexist assaults, provide
access to health care services, other basic services, and offer training
and employment opportunities. Although homelessness is a complex problem
that affects all kinds of people, women are especially vulnerable and
need tailored responses.

It is estimated that in this country there are some 30,000 people in a
situation of homelessness, although the organizations that work for
these people estimate that there are some 40,000 people who do not have
a place to live. The reasons are many: starting from scratch after
arriving from another country, losing your job or being evicted from
your home, among others. With less access to resources such as
well-paying jobs, health care, childcare, and social support, patriarchy
increases women's risk of homelessness.

Naming them homeless, destitute, street people revictimizes them and
points them out as guilty of their situation. However, it is not due to
a bad personal decision, it is the failure of a system based on the
accumulation of wealth, which grants privileges to an ever smaller
number of people and condemns the majority to social exclusion. This
majority of the population is made up of the working class, where no one
is safe from being abandoned by the system. Not even having a job.

Society must be based on fundamental principles such as the dignity of
all people and equality. But we live in radical inequality, where
poverty and social (and residential) exclusion are typical
characteristics of this society. Only if we want to stop talking about
homelessness do we have a way: to tackle the problems that lead to this
situation.

https://www.cnt.es/noticias/mujeres-y-sinhogarismo-invisibilizadas-por-el-sistema/
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