Britain is building its first women-only apartment block – here’s why

Having a home over our heads is a universal human right, yet for many, the process of securing safe and suitable accommodation can be difficult, dangerous and inequitable.

Especially if you are a woman – even more so a woman in an ethnic or other minority group, and older. The problem exists in all types of housing scenarios: from emergency temporary accommodation to the private rental sector.

The United Nations acknowledges the extent and complexity of the issue in its report Women and the right to adequate housing: “As a result of discrimination and inequality in housing, many women and girls live in insecure, undignified and unsafe conditions, at increased risk of homelessness and violence.”

So, what is being done to help vulnerable women access housing strategies?

One London council is tackling the problem head-on, giving the green light to a purpose-built, women-only housing block.

As UK homeless charity Shelter points out, “housing is a women’s issue”. While the statistics suggest 87% of rough sleepers in England are men, there are likely many more “hidden” homeless women, it says.

And as they earn less than men overall, women are more likely to be struggling to pay their rent. Meanwile, 60% of people living in temporary accommodation are women. This also makes them more likely than men to be at risk of losing their homes, which can leave women vulnerable to exploitation.

The UK Home Office introduced a consultation paper in April 2023, on the proposal of a new law to crack down on the predatory practice of “sex for rent”. This is defined as “accommodation in exchange for sexual relations”. The crime is categorized under “violence against women and girls”, as it’s mostly women who are targeted.

The London Borough of Ealing appears to be responding to the challenge of providing secure and affordable accommodation for women by approving a radical housing project with an equally radical landlord.

Developed with the city’s largest housing association, L&Q, this 102-flat block is set to be the first in the UK for women only. It will be owned and managed by Women’s Pioneer Housing (WPH), a co-op founded in 1920 by members of the suffrage and women’s rights movements.

WPH is ensuring the design of this 15-storey building is being tailored to suit the needs of its future women residents. Occupancy is being prioritized “to women who face inequality, abuse and disadvantages in the housing market”, The Guardian reports.

While welcomed by some, the project has attracted criticism – concerning its scale, suitability and availability for previous residents of the site, and because it excludes male tenants. Men are only allowed to stay in the building if they are the tenants’ partners or adult children of the women residents, according to the BBC.

Housing discrimination is one part of a much larger global inequality problem. It will take 131 years to close the current gender gap – a term covering a range of dimensions that expose many other disparities – according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2023.

"We hope the data and analysis provided in this report can further accelerate the speed of travel towards parity by catalysing and informing action by public- and private-sector leaders in their efforts to close the global gender gap," said Saadia Zahidi, the Forum’s Managing Director.

"With the myriad challenges the world faces, we need the full power of human creativity and collaboration to find pathways to shared prosperity."