"Nowhere to stay and feel safe:" Life on the streets as a woman in Cornwall
We've taken an exclusive look inside the Penzance support group, run by St Petrocs, for women sleeping rough
A woman in Cornwall has described her first nights of sleeping rough on the streets as "mental torture."
We have been hearing exclusively from women who've experienced homelessness about their experiences in a visit to St Petrocs Breadline Centre in Penzance.
There, weekly groups are hosted to provide a space so women don't feel alone.
"Nowhere to stay and feel safe"
It is suggested the real number of women rough sleeping is significantly higher than current data suggests. Official figures show fewer than 6 hundred women are living on the streets in England. In Cornwall, only 35 per cent of people sleeping homeless are women.
One woman, who we're keeping anonymous for safety reasons, told us: "The stigma is horrible. Anybody could be on the street and everybody is on the verge of being homeless.
"My partner went to the shop one day and I was on the side of the road waiting with our bags. A couple came past and a man grabbed his partner and walked away fast. Thinking that people on the streets are trying to rob you, or hurt you. It's not the case."
She told us many experiences she has are different to men including having to be vulnerable and hide behind bins when going to the toilet, due to no cubicles being open.
She added: "Couldn't find anywhere to sleep. There's no bathrooms open for women. You'd have to hold it and have an accident or find an alleyway."
Deborah, who attended the group for the first time has also experienced sleeping rough and is seeking support with St Petrocs. She told us:
"I've spent a lot of time in a sleeping bag on the beach. I've been everywhere in Hayle and in Penzance to stay safe. I've spent most of February, March and April rough sleeping.
"This is not easy for me to be a woman, 56 years old, navigating homelessness. It's really challenging to say the least.
"I have been on the other end of the judgement of other people being homeless and looking at people who are homeless and not understanding the dynamics of how they end up there. There are multitudes of reasons why people could end up homeless."
Since the women's group at Breadline resource centre first launched earlier this year, the group has supported more than 20 women.
"It's a lifeline for women"
Faye Hookins, homeless support co-ordinator, said: "We know that women experience homelessness differently to men, often staying in vulnerable housing situations for a lot longer. To create a women's only space, a new group was set up at Breadline, Penzance."
Faye added: "It's really nice, we're able to just do things with our hands. Whether that's cooking or art. We're not talking about homelessness necessarily, we're not talking about trauma. We're just having some nice time together and that's really important for mental well-being.
"I think we will carry on. It's been so important and crucial. The feedback we've had is women have said they have hope again now and there are spaces that reflect their needs and are not a generic one size fits all."
The Single Homeless Project previously told our investigation that the way homeless people are counted on a single night each autumn means that women are often missed.
Lucy Campbell, from the Single Homeless Project, said: "The data is resulting in a real lack of women's provision which is problematic because women aren't getting their needs met but also it's perpetuating this problem of women not being identified at all because there aren't welcoming spaces for them to come in to.
"We know that women who experience homelessness in all forms are at far higher risk of physical and sexual attack than males are so obviously if you are a woman facing a night out in the elements, what you're going to do is hide yourself away as much as possible."
Read more:
Kicked, urinated on, tents set on fire - we reveal the realities for female rough sleepers in the UK
Female rough sleeping more than four times higher than current data suggests