Domestic abuse survivors are being forced to return to live with perpetrators, or face homelessness, because they are unable to get a place in a refuge amid “ever-growing” demand.
A report seen by the Observer, to be published on Monday, found that more than a quarter of the women supported last year through a government-funded scheme were subjected to further abuse by the perpetrator while waiting for a refuge space.
Of the 254 women who completed support from the Women’s Aid programme in 2022, 46 spent time sleeping on other people’s sofas, 39 had no money for essentials and nine slept rough.
The No Woman Turned Away research found that 24% of the women had disabilities, 37% had no recourse to public funds and 40% were from Black and minority backgrounds.
Despite being required by the 2021 Domestic Abuse Act to provide refuge services and safe accommodation to domestic abuse victims, local authorities in England often did not have the resources or the knowledge to fulfil their statutory duty, failing victims, the report found.
“These findings suggest that despite these encouraging developments, many statutory agencies far too often fail to uphold their duty to support survivors,” it said. The Observer reported in April that safe housing was denied to more than 10,000 women in England escaping domestic abuse last year.
Lisa Johnson, manager of direct services at Women’s Aid, condemned the latest findings – the worst since the project began in 2016 – blaming “system failures”.
“There’s a real lack of refuge vacancies in the country. Local services are under a lot of pressure to financially support women, particularly with no recourse to public funds, and they’re not in a position to do that,” she said.
Other contributing factors include inadequate funding, the cost of living crisis, poor access to support for women with insecure immigration status, systemic racism and insufficient knowledge among professionals working across public services.
“When women reach out – for example to the police, local authority housing team, social care – there are real system failures within all of that,” Johnson said. “Most survivors, when they reach out for support, that’s a huge courageous step for anybody to take because we know working in the sector that leaving an abusive relationship is the most dangerous time.”
If women fail to get support, Johnson added, “their choice is to go back to the perpetrator or become homeless”. As well as being potentially dangerous, this can have a disastrous impact on a woman’s chances of finding refuge.
“Her hopes of safety are pretty much lost or diminished for the future,” Johnson said. “We know perpetrators. As soon as they feel they’re losing control of that relationship, losing control of that woman, losing control of the children, violence will escalate and could be life-threatening.”
Calling for mandatory training across all services – including the judicial system – she said: “Demand for the services is ever-growing.”
Women’s Aid urged the government to commit to a minimum funding settlement of £427m a year for specialist domestic abuse services in England, of which a minimum of £189m, it said, should be ringfenced for refuge services. They also said women should be protected, whatever their immigration status.
The Local Government Association said more funding was needed to meet “huge demand”. Nesil Caliskan, chair of the LGA’s safer and stronger communities board, said: “Domestic abuse is a horrendous crime, which councils take extremely seriously. However they cannot tackle this alone. The cooperation of other public services including the police is essential if we are to work to eliminate domestic abuse.
“While the new funding announced to provide accommodation-based support under the Domestic Abuse Act was positive, the current provision is under huge demand. Further funding would help to alleviate these issues.”
Calling for an “equal focus” on funding for prevention and early intervention, Caliskan added: “This should be alongside wider community-based support, as well as accommodation-based support and refuges.”
A government spokesperson said: “It is absolutely critical that victims get the support they need, and councils have a duty to provide safe accommodation to victims under the Domestic Abuse Act 2021.
“That is why, since April 2021, we have provided over £375m to councils across England to ensure that victims can find safe refuge, alongside a range of services including counselling and therapy, children support, and advocacy support to access healthcare and benefits.
“We have also committed a further £129.7m in funding to deliver these duties from April 2024.”
‘They are most at risk when trying to leave’
At any given time, Habiba Molvi-Pathan is working on 20 to 25 domestic abuse cases – helping survivors get into a position of safety.
But a considerable amount of her time working as a practitioner for No Woman Turned Away is also spent explaining domestic abuse to the services that are supposed to be helping survivors.
“We’re always having a conversation with statutory services just to explain the dynamics of abuse: why a woman doesn’t leave straight away, why doesn’t she report to the police, why she can’t go back to the danger area, why she can’t just get into refuge,” said Molvi-Pathan, who has been working in the violence against women and girls sector for a decade.
She wishes there was funding for them to provide regular training to statutory services so they would better understand domestic abuse. “It’s important, just like you would with first aid, every couple of years to refresh.”
In the last year she has seen client referrals go up, particularly around holidays and football matches.
Many have no recourse to public funds, which means there’s less support available to them. “They have fewer options and it takes a lot longer to find them suitable accommodation because there are so many other issues that need to be unpicked.”
While they are waiting, she helps her clients devise a safety plan which is regularly reviewed until they find safe suitable accommodation. “Whilst you’re trying to leave, that’s when the survivor is at most risk, that’s when the likelihood of abuse escalating is worse. So that’s a really important part of our work and risk assessment.”
The most important way to respond to a woman making a disclosure is to listen and believe, she said. “It’s responding with empathy and understanding that’s so important.”
