The Feminization of Poverty: Single Motherhood as a Factor Increasing the Risk of Housing Exclusion
The housing crisis does not affect all households equally. Families in which one person bears sole responsibility for raising children and supporting the household financially, overwhelmingly women, are among those most exposed to housing exclusion.
This report, produced by the Decent Housing Observatory of Esade's Institute for Social Innovation in collaboration with Fundació Hàbitat3 and Fundació Habitatge Social, examines the housing trajectories of 48 women raising and supporting their families alone in Barcelona and its metropolitan area, through in-depth interviews, life histories and a focus group with professionals from both organizations.
The study shows that housing exclusion among these families arises at the intersection of single motherhood, precarious employment, migration and gender-based violence. Their housing trajectories are characterized by successive periods of instability: relationship breakdowns, missed payments, rent increases, stays with relatives, sublet rooms or hotels arranged by social services. This constitutes a form of hidden homelessness that is not reflected in official counts, as women use every strategy available to prevent their children from ending up on the streets.
Access to stable housing through a third-sector program represents a turning point: it enables families to reorganize their daily lives, improves children's well-being and academic performance, and restores the possibility of building a future. However, the report identifies a structural bottleneck: the transition out of these programs. Eligibility requirements for public housing and emergency assistance are designed around dual-income households, excluding precisely those who need them most. As a result, social organizations and local authorities end up addressing situations of severe poverty that should be covered by public housing and social rights policies.
The report concludes with a series of recommendations aimed at local, regional and national authorities, as well as housing management organizations, organized around the obstacles single-mother families encounter along their housing journeys: recognizing single motherhood as a priority category in housing plans; expanding access to emergency housing assistance through the Emergency Housing Board; adapting subsidized housing to the realities of single-income households; ensuring a pathway from third-sector housing programs to public housing; providing stable funding for professional support services; and adapting social benefits and immigration regulations to the realities of single motherhood.
Because no third-sector intervention, however effective, can replace a public housing policy that recognizes what it means to support a household on a single income, with no one to share the responsibilities of raising children.