Gender, violence and being homeless: the experience of women and high risk drug use.

Objective: To describe the experience of homeless women and their high risk drug use.

Method: Qualitative research whose data were produced by semi-structured interviews conducted with seven women enrolled in a CAPSad in Salvador, Bahia, in the period from October to December 2012.

Results: Theme content analysis was adopted to organize the data that resulted from processing two thematic categories: Gender, violence and drug use: What changes and what is perpetuated in the life of women users; No strings attached: life on the streets.

Conclusion: The results show that many behaviors experienced in the family context and social constructions are reproduced by women and keep them vulnerable to social and health issues, among them the onset and maintenance of high risk drug use.