Home to stay: creative solutions to women's homelessness
By Sarah Walters, 4 August 2021
Fellow's Profile
Sarah Walters
Fellow's Profile
Sarah Walters
Home to stay: creative solutions to women's homelessness
Fellowship
- Themes
- Focus
-
Rehousing vulnerable homeless women through co-operative working between agencies
- Countries
- Fellowship year
-
2017
- Supported by
- Locality
-
West Midlands
Contact
Biography
I work as a best practice manager within the Best Practice Team at Crisis, a large national homelessness charity. We look to identify, test and promote new solutions and approaches to ending homelessness across the UK, working with our own services, other charities, local authorities and in partnerships with cities to do this.
I have a particular interest in women's homelessness and my Fellowship enabled me to travel and understand how models of housing and approaches to ending homelessness for women is approached in the USA and Canada.
I have promoted taking a gendered approach to homelessness and housing and recently ran a very successful online conference with two other Fellows, which focused on women's health, family and housing through the lens of homelessness. We were able to have contributions and insights from those we had visited on our Fellowships and the conference attracted over 500 attendees.
The Fellowship has probably been the highlight of my career so far, inspiring me to work towards ending homelessness for women.
Ideas
Activity
Counting women, ending homelessness
Sarah Walters reflects on how her Churchill Fellowship learning from the USA and Canada continues to shape her work to end women’s homelessness in the UK. Her visits showed the power of gender-informed, trauma-aware services designed around women’s experiences, from specialist housing to support that helps women rebuild their lives. She shares how this learning informed a women-only respite hotel as part of Crisis at Christmas 2025, and how it continues to inspire change in services for women experiencing homelessness.
By Sarah Walters, 6 August 2026
Disclaimer
All Reports are copyright © the author. The moral right of the author has been asserted. The views and opinions expressed by any Fellow are those of the Fellow and not of the Churchill Fellowship or its partners, which have no responsibility or liability for any part of them.
Ideas
Home to stay: creative solutions to women's homelessness
By Sarah Walters, 4 August 2021
Activity
Counting women, ending homelessness
Sarah Walters reflects on how her Churchill Fellowship learning from the USA and Canada continues to shape her work to end women’s homelessness in the UK. Her visits showed the power of gender-informed, trauma-aware services designed around women’s experiences, from specialist housing to support that helps women rebuild their lives. She shares how this learning informed a women-only respite hotel as part of Crisis at Christmas 2025, and how it continues to inspire change in services for women experiencing homelessness.
By Sarah Walters, 6 August 2026
Disclaimer
All Reports are copyright © the author. The moral right of the author has been asserted. The views and opinions expressed by any Fellow are those of the Fellow and not of the Churchill Fellowship or its partners, which have no responsibility or liability for any part of them.
