Tampon Tax funding behind charities’ bids to end women’s homelessness

Eighteen organisations are to receive large grants of up to £100,000, and a further eleven small grants of up to £32,000 are to be awarded to charities with a turnover of less than £2 million, with funding totalling £1.85 million (see table below for full list of grantees).

Altogether, almost 200 applications were received, demonstrating the huge need for increased funding and support for women experiencing homelessness. A recent report revealed that over two thirds (69%) of support agencies had seen an increase in the number of women with multiple disadvantage presenting to their service over the last two years, and that women are approaching services having experienced multiple forms of violence and abuse.

Homeless Link’s grants programme aims to help end women’s homelessness by building capacity for gender- and trauma-informed services and developing partnerships between homelessness and specialist women’s sector charities. To amplify its impact, it will create a community of organisations that meet to share expertise and learning.

The successful organisations will transform the support received by women who are homeless or at risk of homelessness in a variety of innovative ways, including by:

• establishing or growing their women-only provision
• creating women-only spaces and specialist support within mixed services
• up-skilling staff to support women on a range of issues e.g. domestic abuse
• improving access to services to reduce the number of women sleeping rough
• focussing on prevention work and support for women who are hidden homeless
• involving women with lived experience of homelessness in project design and delivery

Several projects will pilot targeted interventions for under-represented groups such as LGBTQI+ women, black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) women, young women and women with no recourse to public funds (NRPF)

In addition to fostering increased collaboration between homelessness and specialist women’s charities and the co-location of services, the grants will also see both sectors contributing to the implementation of Local Authority homelessness and rough sleeping strategies.

The grantees were chosen by a cross-sector, all-woman panel, including women with lived experience of homelessness.

Tasmin Maitland, Homeless Link's Assistant Director of Practice and Partnerships, comments: “Women’s homelessness is a largely hidden crisis, with over 600 women sleeping on our streets every night and thousands more who are struggling every day without access to a safe or suitable home. Despite this, women who are homeless or at risk of homelessness are one of the most marginalised groups in our society and the specialist support that they need is often lacking or non-existent.

“Funding from the Tampon Tax Fund has enabled us to reach a diverse range of front line charities, building their capacity to deliver effective gender and trauma informed support for women experiencing homelessness. With the homelessness and women’s sectors working together, we expect the impact of this programme to be transformational, ultimately helping to end homelessness for women.”

Anne Taylor, who sat on the grants panel and has lived experience of homelessness, adds: “I feel privileged to be a part of a panel that received such a deluge of high quality bids from all over the country, demonstrating the excellence of the work being done in this imperative and underfunded sector nationwide.”

Table of grantees of Homeless Link's Ending Women's Homelessness Fund - for further information on each project, please click on the organisation name.