Cork Penny Dinners say there is an urgent need for female-only homeless centres and services.
The city based charity says women who are homeless have different needs to men and are often the victims of rape and sexual assault.
The call follows a report from Merchants Quay Ireland which says women account for 42% of homeless people in Ireland and that the average age of death for those women is 38.
Speaking to RedFM News, Caitriona Twomey from Cork Penny Dinners outlines the dilemma many women face after being assaulted on the street.
"When they go to the hospital, and everything is done for them in the hospital they have to go back on the streets again, facing their perpetrators and they run the risk of being raped all over again.
"They need this sanctuary in order to come to it, curl up into a ball and to be safe and protected from the preparatory, be safe from the streets and for it to be some place where they can begin to heal."
