Sarah shows her support for homeless women

Sarah recently visited St Mungo's South Londons women's hostel to hear about how women are slipping through safety nets into homelessness, and what is helping them recover. She toured the 18 bed hostel and was introduced to residents by Esther Sample, St Mungo's Women's Strategy Implementation Manager. The hostel supports women to address a range of issues including substance use and involvement in prostitution.

The visit comes as Sarah has been committed to find ways to tackle child sexual exploitation (CSE) and trafficking within the UK. Sarah is leading an inquiry that aims to examine exactly what the authorities are doing to protect and support victims.

Sarah said: "Visiting St. Mungo's and meeting some of the women who are living there, it's clear to see that child sexual exploitation feeds directly into prostitution.

These two issues need to be tackled as the devastation they cause to the individuals, and the wider community is in calculable and cannot be allowed to continue and I would urge that anyone currently experiencing domestic abuse in this area to contact Rotherham Women's Refuge.

Esther Sample, St Mungo's Women's Strategy Implementation Manager, said: Women make up just over a quarter of St Mungo's clients, and can have a complicated mix of problems that lead to homelessness, including domestic violence experiences, drug or alcohol use, difficult relationships with children and families and, in some cases, prostitution.

We were delighted to welcome Sarah to our South London Women's hostel. Support such as Sarah's will help raise awareness of our work overall, and particularly of our Rebuilding Shattered Lives campaign which aims to help drive improvements to services for women who are homeless or at risk of homelessness."