For women, situation can be dangerous, ‘more desperate’
Men are more likely to be homeless; women fear assault
This is the fifth in an Enterprise-Record series examining homelessness in Butte County. The series will continue every Thursday throughout the fall and winter months.
CHICO >> To be without shelter in Butte County, particularly during the winter months, is a daily battle to find food, water and a warm place to stay. To be a woman alone and homeless can be another battle entirely.
Here in rural Butte County, it has become a key issue — one that is multi-faceted along gender lines as well as socioeconomic ones.
Current data suggests there are more homeless men than women
in America. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recorded that in 2018, men were more likely than women to be homeless, with 60 percent of the total population of homeless adults being male. The total number of women are also more likely to be living in emergency shelters than to be unsheltered, according to the department’s Point-In-Time report for 2018.
However, women are more likely to be homeless as a direct result of experiencing domestic violence or sexual abuse. More than 80 percent of homeless mothers with children (over 85 percent of homeless families being headed by women) reported being victims of abuse or assault, according to the National Center for Children in Poverty report.
Gender divides on the street
In Chico, local homeless advocate Patrick Newman said he thinks that men and women do experience homelessness differently, but not in the way some might believe.
While women may be more concerned with personal safety while homeless, there are generally more resources available to them for emergency needs, such as a temporary stay at the Torres Shelter.
Men, Newman said, are often more visibly homeless — meaning they are less likely to have emergency shelter, and are more often seen forced to shelter in public, fitting the federal definition for unsheltered homelessness. Unsheltered homelessness refers to people whose primary nighttime location is a public or private place not designated as a regular sleeping accommodation for people, like parks or vehicles.
“Men are constantly assaulted and are much more likely to be arrested on the street,” Newman said. “And 80 percent of fatalities on the street are male.”
Men who are homeless have fewer options for housing and protection, particularly in Chico, he said.
“It’s harder for them to find housing,” Newman said. “They are turned out of shelters more quickly. There are fewer resources available.”
There is now a program that can help men find temporary housing at the Torres Shelter through the Friend’s House program, however.
Established in 2015, Friends House is a transitional housing solution for men who have demonstrated stability while staying at the shelter, and houses up to six men at a time. An on-site manager works with residents and facilitates lifeskills training. Residents are limited to a two-year stay, and must keep their rooms clean, maintain the grounds and share household chores.
Eligibility is based on the stability of the guest of the Torres Community Shelter, or 90 consecutive days of nightly participation in the Torres Community Shelter with no suspensions. Participants are required to have a reliable source of income and pay $350 per month.
A reality on the street
Local homeless advocate Jana Burgess-Henry, who volunteers with Newman, somewhat disagrees with his assessment. She said in her time in Chico and working with Friends on the Street, she regularly talks to women who have been homeless for a long time, and has seen how difficult their experience is.
Helping out at noon in the downtown plaza Sundays to distribute food and clothing, Burgess-Henry has been a volunteer with Friends on the Street for about two years. She also personally experienced homelessness decades ago.
“I was homeless as a young person,” BurgessHenry said, after losing her husband in the first year of marriage as well as her job and home. She added she believes that those who have not been homeless cannot understand how difficult it is to get back on one’s feet.
“People don’t recognize how difficult it is to be moved around all the time,” she said, while having to carry all possessions everywhere.
There’s a lot of fear as a woman without shelter, she said. Women may be able to find temporary housing at the shelters, but those shelters are now full with no remaining beds, and have waitlists.
That leads to more unsheltered homeless women, who often seek companionship with a male in order to try to protect themselves. Otherwise, she said, a woman has to be constantly vigilant. She has met numerous Chico women who have been attacked or raped while living on the street.
Aiding women’s needs
Access to menstrual products is another ongoing struggle for women who are not sheltered.
Many women may spend about $300 on sanitary menstrual products each month, which means thousands of dollars every year. If a person cannot afford these products, it can be extremely difficult to find them for free.
This need has led to programs like Helping Women Period and The Homeless Women project that are focused on improving access to necessary items like tampons and menstrual pads. However, women still have few options to find these products for free in Chico, Burgess-Henry said.
Not enough shelter
Burgess-Henry lives near the west Rio Lindo Channel, and says that since the Camp Fire, she has seen a significant increase in people camping there and has spent time there talking to people who have been displaced.
She also believes that a large number of foster youths who aged out of the system “scattered,” with many ending up in Chico.
Just under 40 percent of unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness in 2018 were women or girls (38 percent), according to the Point in Time report, a higher percentage than of all individuals experiencing homelessness (28 percent). One-third of unaccompanied youth staying in unsheltered locations were female, compared to just over onequarter of all unsheltered individuals (27 percent).
Burgess-Henry said more young people were asking her what to do for their first winter, last year. Without transitional housing, like the low-barrier shelter that was blocked, the Torres Shelter changed its policies with greater allowance than previously.
“But that took a while,” she said, leaving many people without anywhere legal to stay. “You get moved along all the time.”
“I did notice some changes after the Camp Fire, but they were already pretty bad.”
She also has noticed changes in the population, with increases in younger homeless individuals with the addition of some older homeless. This includes seeing more females on the street, even if males are still in the majority.
Because of the shortages of beds available to men and women, BurgessHenry is frustrated with Chico State’s decision to oppose a low-barrier shelter on Orange Street last spring, which the university’s president Gayle Hutchinson stated in a letter obtained by the Enterprise-Record in March.
Part of the problem is the belief that all homeless people are criminals, she said.
It’s true that drug use is a significant problem for many homeless people, Burgess-Henry said, but “it’s important to understand that it isn’t true of all unsheltered individuals and there can be many reasons for drug abuse, which people don’t want to understand.”
“They want to say, I work hard, I pay my taxes, why should I pay for anything else?” she said. “And they’re very resistant to additional services — they say, there’s enough. You can just get help. And it’s not quite that simple.”
People who are desperate do desperate things, Burgess-Henry added.
“Some people merely suffer, and suffer alone,” she said.
“That’s a significant number of women that I talk to. They suffer in silence, often. And I think people have low recognition of how many people really suffer, and self-medicate. They just call people druggies — that’s not true of everyone, first of all, and secondly, people do self-medicate with alcohol and sometimes for mental health reasons.”
“Some people merely suffer, and suffer alone. That’s a significant number of women that I talk to. They suffer in silence, often. ” — Jana Burgess Henry, Friends on the Street