Introduction
There has been a growing awareness in research of the frequency of lone mothers
as part of the family homelessness population, and also among lone women
presenting as homeless (Van den Dries et al., 2016; Baptista et al., 2017; Walsh and
Harvey, 2017; Hearne and Murphy, 2020; Bimpson et al., 2020; Focus Ireland,
2021a). There is a prevalence of mothers experiencing homelessness unaccompanied by their children amongst the general homeless population (Mayock and
Sheridan, 2012; Shinn et al., 2015; Bretherton and Mayock, 2021; van den Dries et
al., 2016; Savage, 2016; Bimpson et al., 2020).

However, owing to the preponderance of women experiencing homelessness amongst the hidden homelessness population, and because research and policy responses tend to define women’s homelessness into two distinct populations, family or single women’s homelessness, the actual numbers of unaccompanied mothers experiencing homelessness is unclear (Savage, 2016; Baptista, 2019). Consequently, the realities of their lived experiences as mothers and their homelessness journeys are not widely understood (Savage, 2016; Bimpson et al., 2020; 2022). This paper aims to add to the growing body of research on women’s homeless nessparticularly for women who experience long-term and recurrent homelessness
(Pleace et al., 2016).