Every day, I work with women who are homeless, helping them to rebuild their lives after the devastation of living without a safe place to call home. Knowing how brutal homelessness is, it never ceases to shock me that many women across England – including some of those I work with – become homeless after fleeing an abusive partner because they aren’t considered vulnerable enough for help from their local council.
It’s shocking, but sadly, it happens far too often. While we know that domestic abuse doesn’t just affect women, we know that they are considerably more likely to experience frequent and severe types of abuse. Women’s Aid found that of the 97 women who approached their local council for help after fleeing domestic abuse in 2018, more than half were prevented from making an application for homelessness assistance.
Of these women, nearly a quarter were prevented from making the application because they were told they weren’t likely to be considered priority need – this means they weren’t considered vulnerable enough to qualify for support. In one of the world’s richest nations this simply shouldn’t be happening.
Who could be in a more vulnerable situation? Especially when we know that many of these women face being killed by their partners if they do leave.
Recently, I worked with a woman called Sarah*. Having fled her home to escape an abusive partner who threatened her with a knife, Sarah ended up homeless for 11 months. Despite having complex mental health issues, she had little access to the help she needed and ended up sofa surfing, self-medicating, and entering another abusive relationship.
Trying to be rehoused was an uphill battle. Sarah was told she had to prove she was a victim of domestic abuse before she could be placed into safe permanent housing by her new local council. Fortunately for Sarah, with support from a local mental health service and Crisis, she was able to prove she did qualify for help – but only after months of homelessness.
Sadly, many women don’t have access to the same kind of support. And disturbingly, Sarah’s story is not an isolated incident. I’ve heard stories of women being asked to provide a criminal reference number – an inappropriate request when we know that many survivors are too frightened to report abuse to the police – while others have been told to return home to retrieve evidence of the abuse they’ve suffered.
Not only is providing evidence extremely traumatic for survivors, proving to their council that they are vulnerable enough to be prioritised for housing is near impossible to do.
Unable to prove their vulnerability and with nowhere else to go, many find themselves having to make the unbearable choice between homelessness or returning to an abusive partner.
We know at Crisis that homelessness is not only extremely dangerous but can be deadly as well. And so is fleeing domestic abuse. Research by Women’s Aid found that between 2009 and 2015, three quarters of women who were killed by their ex-partner were killed within the first year of the relationship ending. This can’t go on.
Through the recently published draft Domestic Abuse Bill, the Government has a chance to make this right, by extending ‘priority need’ status to anyone who is homeless because of domestic abuse, they can guarantee them a safe home.
Instead of forcing women to stand in crowded waiting rooms and detail the abuse they have experienced, or spending billions each year on keeping people in temporary accommodation instead of safe and permanent housing, we have the opportunity to ensure that those in the most vulnerable circumstances are supported into a home – where they can access the vital support they need to begin rebuilding their lives.
That’s why Crisis is supporting the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Ending Homelessness and its campaign to fix this broken system. The APPG is calling on the Government to amend the draft Domestic Abuse Bill and ensure that anyone who is homeless because of fleeing domestic abuse has access to safe home.
In 21 Century Britain, this campaign couldn’t come soon enough.
Anna Thomas is a Women’s Coach at the national homeless charity, Crisis