Introduction

The proportion of women amongst the adult homeless population increased throughout the 1970s and 1980s and is currently estimated at between 10% and 25%. Women with children are now the fastest growing segment of the homeless population in the USA (Smith & North, 1994). Information about homeless women is limited to studies that have been carried out in accessible settings such as hostels, shelters and day centres, and cannot, therefore, be generalized. In studies where homeless men and women have been interviewed, the numbers of women are small and comparisons between the sexes have not been made (Arce et al, 1983; Bassuk et al., 1984; Fischer et al., 1986; Kroll et al.,1986).

The current situation and the specific problems experienced by homeless women in Britain and the USA can be better understood in the light of historical evidence.

Homeless women in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

Britain

After the Industrial Revolution in Britain, people moved to the cities and towns to look for work. The increased demand for accommodation caused a housing shortage. Women worked in factories, mills and shops but their wages were low and their accommodation options limited. Until the 1880s, when social reformers began to intervene in the housing crisis, working women could either rent rooms, lodge or board with a household, stay in common lodging houses or in accommodation provided by their employer (Watson & Austerberry, 1986). Living-in was a condition of employment in the drapery and allied trades and in domestic service.