When refuges close down the cycle of abuse against women continues
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Version 0 of 1. On a single day last summer, 155 women with 103 children were turned away from the first domestic violence refuge they approached. We expect that number to have been higher this summer. That’s just one bleak snapshot from the current crisis in our national network of refuges. We have only 68% of the refuge spaces we need in England, and the situation is rapidly growing worse, with 10 specialist services lost in the first quarter of this financial year alone, and 17% of refuges closed completely since 2010. In some areas there are now no refuges at all. When there are no refuge places available, abused women face impossible choices. Many feel they have no option but to return to the perpetrator of the violence, often with their children, to ensure they have a roof over their heads. This means a return to relentless psychological, sexual, and physical abuse, with long-term and very severe effects on both women and children. Some will be killed on their return, as punishment for having tried to escape. Others will commit suicide, seeing no other way out. Those who don’t immediately return to the perpetrator can struggle to find any place of safety. Nadia (all names have been changed) sat for hours in her local authority housing department with her three children, trying to find access to a refuge. When she presented as homeless, the housing department sat her at a desk, and instructed her to call the National Domestic Violence Helpline herself, to find housing, as they were unable to help. After a fruitless three-hour search, told at every turn that no refuge spaces were available, Nadia returned home. Later that day she had to visit her local A&E because of fresh injuries inflicted by her husband when he learned where she had been. Sarah was slightly more fortunate. She and her baby daughter were found a space in a B&B – but the room below was occupied by a young man just released from prison for committing a violent offence, and the garden was regularly used as a meeting place by drug addicts. After being accosted on the stairs by other residents, she was too frightened to use the communal kitchen to heat her daughter’s milk or her own food. She was given one hour’s counselling a week at a local cafe by the service that provides outreach support for domestic violence in her area. Sarah’s specialist (independent domestic violence advocate (IDVA) knows she needs a refuge place, and that her insecure living accommodation makes it likely she’ll return to the perpetrator, the man who raped her immediately on her return from hospital after giving birth to their daughter. Women without children are often provided with even less help. When there was no refuge space available for Jane, the local housing department told her she did not fit its criteria for emergency accommodation, and would have to find somewhere to live herself until long-term accommodation could be found. Jane slept in her car for a week, until she was able to find a space on a friend’s sofa. She moved from sofa to sofa, increasingly staying with people she did not know very well, for a couple of days at a time, before being asked to move on or deciding to leave before she was asked. In the end she was regularly staying with strangers she’d met during the day who were willing to offer a place to sleep. After four months, the council determined she had been away from the perpetrator long enough that she was no longer at direct risk of domestic violence, and so not a priority for housing. She didn’t see the point in attempting to get support for the ongoing harassment from her ex-boyfriend, as no one had helped her previously. She ended up living on the streets, homeless. Indeed, domestic violence is the second most common cause of homelessness among women – a problem that can only increase as refuges close. This week Women’s Aid launched a campaign, with a petition, calling on the government to protect specialist domestic violence services and expand provision so that refuges are able to support every woman who needs them, both from within and outside their local area. Our national network of refuges has developed over the past 40 years into a system of which we can and should be very proud. It is an emergency service for thousands of women and children every year, but it is not treated as such and is currently under huge threat. For women like Nadia, Sarah and Jane, we must act now. |