One survivor summed up her situation as “horrible, living in fear with an abuser but safer with one than on the streets…”
Survivors taking part in our research also told us of their anxieties of potentially having to live in unsuitable shared accommodation with strangers while recovering from the trauma of experiencing domestic abuse.
This included the possibility of having to share housing with men after leaving a relationship with an abusive man. For those survivors temporarily living with friends or family, living conditions were often overcrowded as well as unsafe because their relative’s or friend’s address was usually known to the perpetrator.
Continue reading for free
Registration is free and takes less than 30 seconds.
Our supporters make Big Issue’s work possible. Join us to see the impact we’re having together and discover more ways to help people facing poverty access income, opportunity and support.
Specialist women’s refuges are vital parts of the response to domestic abuse. A refuge is more than a roof over someone’s head. General homeless hostels are rarely suitable for women fleeing domestic abuse. In contrast, specialist refuges offer expert holistic support that enable women escaping domestic abuse to feel emotionally safe, and recover from the trauma of abuse.
Women’s Aid is calling for secure, sustainable funding for specialist women’s refuges, including those delivered by and for groups of women in demographic minorities. This needs to sit alongside sustainable funding for wider specialist domestic abuse services including community-based support, which is critical for supporting women both in and out of refuge.
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
We welcome that the Domestic Abuse Bill, currently going through Parliament, includes positive change such as ensuring that all domestic abuse survivors will automatically get priority need status when going to their local authority for help with housing. It is important that this change is accompanied by specialist training for local housing teams on domestic abuse.
The Bill must also include measures to ensure that ‘local connection’ rules for accessing refuge and other forms of housing are eliminated, in recognition that survivors often need to cross local authority boundaries to be safe from their abuser. Most urgently without reforms to ensure migrant women – who are denied recourse to public funds – can access housing and financial support, they will continue to face unacceptable ‘choice’ between homelessness/destitution or remaining with the perpetrator.
Domestic abuse is a crucial housing issue and we must empower all survivors by providing safe and suitable housing options to escape and recover from men’s violence and abuse.
Lizzie McCarthy is a senior policy and research officer at Women’s Aid.
Big Issue vendors need your help now more than ever. More than 1,000 vendors are out of work because of the second lockdown in England. They can’t sell the magazine and they can’t rely on the income they need.
The Big Issue is helping our vendors with supermarket vouchers and gift payments but we need your help to do that.
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Please buy this week’s magazine from the online shop or take out a subscription to make sure we can continue to support our vendors over this difficult period. You can even link your subscription to your local vendor with our new online map.
Thank you all so much for your ongoing support.
