Housing Agencies, Domestic Violence and Multi-Agency Work (From The Multi-Agency Approach to Domestic Violence: New Opportunities, Old Challenges?, P 198-210, 1999, Nicola Harwin, Gill Hague, et al., eds. -- See NCJ-187541)

• NCJ Number: 187553
• Author(s): Ellen Malos
• Date Published: 1999
• Length: 13 pages
• Sale Source: Whiting & Birch Ltd
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

This chapter reports on the findings of two research projects that examined British local housing authorities' responses in providing accommodation for women escaping from violent relationships.

Abstract

A 2-year research study documented the continuing need of abused women for safe permanent housing as well as safe emergency accommodation. It also showed the continuing importance of access to local authority and social rented housing. Similarly, a study commissioned by the Department of the Environment demonstrated the significant part played by local authority housing entitlement for women experiencing violent relationships. Research into local housing authority responses under the previous law examined policy and practice in seven local authorities. In four of these, it focused on in-depth interviews with women who had experienced domestic violence and were seeking accommodation in each of four local authorities, with a follow-up approximately 6 months later. The majority of the women interviewed had dependent children and were therefore to be given priority under the law; the Code of Guidance current at the time advised local authorities to give special consideration to women without dependent children, because they had been made homeless through violence. The research produced no evidence that these groups of women received unfair precedence over other homeless applicants for local authority housing or were given "fast track" access to permanent tenancies on more variable terms than others. Research by the Bristol Domestic Violence Research Group into multi-agency initiatives in domestic violence combined a survey of all local authority areas in the country with more detailed studies of eight differing and geographically dispersed areas in which multi-agency initiatives existed. One way in which multi-agency initiatives can have an impact on housing issues is by the formation of housing sub-groups to work on policy, to develop training packages, and to highlight good practice. 42 references