This innovative new project helps get both domestic abuse victims and perpetrators off the streets

A new London housing project is set to house both domestic abuse survivors and perpetrators in their own flats in a bid to tackle homelessness and prevent violence.

The Housing First project in Camden got underway in April, promising to house 10 couples in 30 council and housing association properties.

Each couple will be housed separately with the survivor offered the choice of how close they want to live to their abuser. 

Single Homeless Project (SHP) and Solace Women’s Aid are working with Camden Council on the project, which has also been funded through the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Greater London Authority via the Single Homelessness Accommodation Programme.

The project comes after a feasibility study, published in March and funded by Commonweal Housing, found that the model has “strong potential to achieve positive improved outcomes for both partners within each couple, reducing harm and potentially saving lives”.

Lucy Campbell, SHP’s head of multiple disadvantage service transformation and domestic abuse organisational lead, said the project could be “transformational” for couples who may not have been able to access housing previously due to their toxic relationships.

“It’s very difficult to get any kind of domestic abuse perpetrator management interventions to people when they are in sleeping bags and living on the street. It’s near-enough impossible to do that,” said Campbell.

“Whereas if they have housing you can start to address their health and their more specialist interventions around risks and healthy relationships and space and opportunity to change becomes much more possible.

“It’s got the potential to be quite transformational for people’s lives who have just not been able to access accommodation and proper support for years in some cases because of those relationships.”

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Housing First has earned a reputation as a leading solution to rough sleeping, most notably for its impact in Finland. The model sees rough sleepers given a home alongside intensive support for as long as they need it to stay indoors.

It is normally associated with helping single homeless people off the streets but experts believe the model for couples could change how domestic abuse-led homelessness is tackled.

Campbell told Big Issue that it was previously impossible to house couples due to the risk to the survivor while housing each partner in separate hostels without targeted support ran the risk of the perpetrator coercing the survivor into staying on the street. While on the street, they face “unmitigated, unseen risks”.

And if the survivor is housed while the perpetrator remains on the street, that poses its own threat too.

“If the perpetrator is rough sleeping, where do you think they are going to go? It’s round to the survivor’s flat, trying to break the windows, break down the door, trying to gain access,” said Campbell.

“They will not leave the survivor alone if the survivor is given something that they are not. It usually enrages them and they become more abusive and more controlling as they try to take away what the survivor’s got in housing and support.”

The Housing First model for couples tries to mitigate this by housing each member of the couple with the ultimate choice of location up to the survivor.

Campbell admitted that the project is unlikely to immediately end domestic abuse. She added that  intensive safeguarding is in place, including sanctuary schemes and safeguarding features in flats while survivors will have access to specialist domestic abuse workers. 

But the hope is that the project will demonstrate that giving both parties the “building blocks of a normal life” will provide a platform to remove abuse from the relationship in the long-term and remove a barrier to ending their homelessness for good.

“Unless someone is in prison in this country, they are deserving of housing,” said Campbell.

“No one should have to live on the streets because of their offending behaviour or history and what we know is where offenders of any sort don’t have housing, food, benefits, healthcare, there is no space at all for behaviour change. They are fighting for survival, they’ve got nothing to live for, they are not going to be thinking about addressing their abusive behaviour towards their partner.

“If they are given the building blocks of a normal life. They can hopefully slowly move towards a place where they can contemplate changing their behaviour because they’ve got something for themselves.”

Camden Council told Big Issue that the project would be evaluated over the next three years to capture and understand its impact.

Councillor Pat Callaghan, Camden Council cabinet member for safer communities, said: “As a borough, we are committed to addressing homelessness and ensuring people who are rough sleeping can be supported as best as possible. Through our Housing First scheme, we can provide people who are rough sleeping with a fresh start and a long-term safe and secure place they can call home.

“Through funding from the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Greater London Authority (GLA), we’ve been able to secure 30 properties for those sleeping rough, alongside providing specialist, wrap around support for those who move in to help them sustain their tenancy, lead healthy lives, and focus on the things that matter to them, aiming to help tenants to live independently and leave homelessness behind for good.”

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