Getting involved with the Women’s Housing Forum

The Forum began as a small group of women working or living in the social housing sector determined to tackle the structural inequalities women face when seeking to access suitable housing. We now have a wide network of people interested in working together to address and raise awareness of women’s housing needs.

The WHF has: 

• Established a website which is co-created with organisations such as DAHA (Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance) and Homeless Link who do vital work aligned to our vision.

• Held events and spoken at range of forums to raise the profile of women’s housing needs. Our conference last year was a particular highlight. We work with both the NHF (National Housing Federation), CIH (Chartered Institute of Housing) and other agencies to raise awareness.

• Our research “ Women, Money and Housing “  developed in partnership with the NHF contributed to the Women’s Budget Group report “A Home of her own, women and housing”. We co-hosted the launch in Parliament.

• We used print and social media to raise awareness further. A highlight this year has been taking BBC radio 4’s Woman’s Hour earlier this year.

We would like to do much more.

We would like to commission research to consider women’s inequality and housing from an intersectional perspective. There is a paucity of research in this area and we are keen to build on this to provide an evidence base to support policymaking. 

We want to share best practice and encourage collaboration across the sector. With more resources we could deliver more information and events for the sector, raising awareness of existing and emerging issues and identifying opportunities for partnership working , for example we would like all HAs to provide more move on permanent accommodation to smaller supported housing providers to enable them to help more women in emergency situations.

In order to deliver our vision, we are moving to a membership model. This will formalise arrangements with our supporters and provide some infrastructure support for the Forum. Fees and donations will also go towards supplementing travel expenses for tenants on low incomes to attend meetings and events.

In line with the discussions at our inaugural conference in 2019, we would like membership for individuals to be free, though we would ask those who can to make a donation.

Organisational membership fees will be on a sliding scale, as follows:

• Under £1m turnover - £100 pa

• Between £1m and £10m - £250 pa

• Between £10m and £50m - £500 pa

• Above £50m - £1,000 pa

We hope that you care as much about these issues and we do and look forward to you joining us to tackle these inequalities. Fill the membership form below to become part of the WHF.

Best wishes

Denise Fowler and Zaiba Qureshi
Co-Chairs of the Women’s Housing Forum