Female rough sleeping higher than government data suggests
We take a look at the latest figures which show the scale of the female rough sleeping issue could be much higher than first thought
New data - seen by our investigation into female rough sleeping - shows the number of women living on our streets could be up to 10 times higher than current estimates.
The latest figures from the Women's Census, which this year saw more than 100 authorities take part for the first time.
The 2026 Census shows:
- 1406 women were identified as sleeping rough across 101 authorities
- That equates to TWICE the government data for the WHOLE of England
- Nationally, six areas which didn't count any female rough sleepers actually had 162 cases between them
- A deeper dive into cross-partner data identified 2969 women across 42 authorities - 10 times the number captured by the government.
- 80% of women were not accessing support from a council housing department.
Women Don't Count: Rough Sleeping's Hidden Secret
Over the last three years, we've been gathering the stories of these hidden female rough sleepers, to give an insight into the difficult lives that they lead:
The 2026 figures show the stark contrast of government data vs more detailed census data.
Across England, there are stark disparities.
In Bristol, 14 women were identified by the Autumn snapshot - but the census identified 281 female rough sleepers - 20 times higher than thought.
Nottinghamshire has 8 female rough sleepers officially identified - the census found 130 additional women.
Five women identified in South Tyneside turned out to be more than 130 off the more in-depth figure from the 2026 Women's Census.
Investigation into female rough sleeping
We first started looking at the issue of female rough sleeping in 2024, after being told the true scale of the issue could be much higher than current data suggests.
The government's go-to rough sleeping dataset is the Autumn Snapshot, which sees teams of people head out on a given night to count how many people are "bedding down" for the night in places like shop doorways and park benches in plain sight.
But our investigation has heard this simply doesn't capture the way women rough sleep - instead they choose to remain out of sight, ride night buses, hide away from danger, or spend time in public toilets behind closed doors.
Female rough sleeping "up to 10 times higher" than current data
Indeed the government's own data carries the caveat: "We recognise that sleeping patterns of females experiencing rough sleeping is more hidden, transient and intermittent and therefore may not be fully captured by the snapshot which requires people to be bedded down and takes place at night."
Now, more than 100 local authorities take part in the Women's Census, organised by Solace Women's Aid and the Single Homeless Project, which offers a much deeper dive into the local rough sleeping scene, and captures many more women who are sleeping rough as a result.
Charities are concerned that decision-making based on incorrect data means services don't match demand, and women are coming to further harm as a result.
Charities supporting female rough sleeping
Rebecca Goshawk is from Solace Women's Aid.
She told us: "Teams aren't finding women, they're not giving them support, or getting them to somewhere safer. Across the country, the number is four times higher, so that discrepancy between the two figures is huge.
"It's really important to understand that whilst most visible rough sleepers are male, that doesn't give the full picture, and as a society we need to be doing more to uncover where women are and what they need."
Rebecca tells us abuse sits at the hearts of their stories: "We do have have examples where women have talked to us about people propositioning them, or committing violence against them on the street, so it's not just the cause, it's the continued risk they live with every day."
Nicky Morson is from Cornerstone, which has homeless hubs in Bishop Auckland and Hartlepool, and she said: "We do find an increased amount of females, especially ones who are hiding, who don't know if the support's available. We have one of the only female shared accommodations in County Durham which is always busy, it's always full, which has been a good success for us. We network with other amazing charities such as Harbour for the support for females.
"The number is definitely higher for female rough sleepers. Once over it was quite dominant by men, but we are seeing a general mix through both our homeless hubs now, unfortunately.
"I think you'll find with females they try and look after themselves a lot better, you know, and that's why we find that they are harder to find and support. We've had a couple of circumstances lately where there was two females who were rough sleeping with children and once over children weren't a priority to be housed but that doesn't seem to be the case now.
"So if they've fallen into a situation where they had no option but homelessness and they've unfortunately had the children removed that might be why there's a bit of a rise.
"We're linked in with sexual health, but I feel like a lot of females who are rough sleeping and need the support from charities such as Harbour who are fleeing domestic violence, who just feel stuck in relationships that they are.
"We network with every other charity and organisation. So if we come into contact with someone who may be sofa surfing or who may feel homeless in a relationship where nothing belongs to them, their name isn't on the property, they shouldn't be on the tenancy and it's a violent controlling relationship.
"Our priority is to get them out safely and get them housed on their own. I think with women you just need to give them confidence. If they've lost contact with children, we find a massive turn when they finally get contact back with their children, which is all they do with housing, so that's a massive part of it.
"But both our hubs, we have Harbour come to the drop-ins, so that's open to the community and we have sexual health come and we have other amazing housing services."
Demand for bespoke female rough sleeping spaces
Lucy Campbell from the Single Homeless project is calling on the government to take action from their findings - ensuring more authorities take part in the deeper census, and are funded accordingly.
She told our investigation: "Collecting accurate and equitable data on a huge social issue like homelessness (that leads people to die by the age of 43) it shouldn't be a 'nice to have' it should be mandated, and we want to see a commitment to rolling out a proper response to rough sleeping across the country."
Lucy believes that more accurate data will means services are more likely to provide suitable gender-led solutions - something she believes is currently missing in towns and cities across the country.
She said: "45% of women we identified were rough sleeping having just fallen out of some kind of rough sleeping accommodation.
"Clearly that accommodation didn't resolve that homelessness. We don't know all the reasons why, but we can make a good guess that it's about safety - lots of the women we spoke to talked about accommodation being male-dominated, feeling really unsafe, having their doors kicked in, feeling really at risk there."
Government response to female rough sleeping
We put the findings of the census to Minister for Local Government and Homelessness Alison McGovern who said: "I would call on all councils to participate in the survey.
"I think that the evidence that Solace have brought forward is incredibly important.
"Government statistics are what they are.
"The fact is we know we need more evidence and insights here.
"So I'll be working with Solace on that and I think that having the violence against women and girls strategy, the child poverty strategy and the homelessness strategy all published at the end of last year together means that now we can get on and delivering and see those connections between supporting women to have a decent income to bring up their family and a roof over their head and making sure they're protected from violence.
"Those things are connected and that's what I want to work with Solace and all of the other charities on."
Rough sleeping documentary: Listen now
You can hear more about the hidden lives of female rough sleepers in our new documentary.
And in part two you can chart the true scale of this hidden problem.