'Wake-up call' More women than thought sleeping rough in city

HUNDREDS of homeless women are sleeping rough in Bristol, with the problem 23 times worse than government figures suggest, a new census has found

- Angus MCINTYRE

Carried out by charities One25, Shelter, The Nelson Trust and St Mungo's, together with Bristol City Council, the census found there were 349 women sleeping rough in the city, significantly more than the 15 recorded in a government snapshot.

Charity leaders said the new census was a wake up call to the scale of the problem of female homelessness. Jennifer Riley, chief executive of Bristol women's charity One25, said: "The Bristol women's census reveals a stark reality: hundreds of women in our city are experiencing homelessness. This data is a call to action - for fair funding and gender-informed services. We can do more to ensure that every woman has a safe place to stay."

One woman who spoke to the census anonymously gave a sobering account of the terrifying reality of sleeping rough as a female. "I feel vulnerable," she said.