Bureaucratic obstacles across local authorities are preventing survivors of domestic abuse from accessing housing support, a new report has revealed.
Most domestic abuse survivors have the legal right to access emergency housing and longer-term safe and secure accommodation.
However, a new study by the Public Interest Law Centre (PILC) has warned that systemic ‘gatekeeping’ – the placing of bureaucratic or other obstacles in the way of those seeking statutory support – by councils means many survivors are unable to access help.
The report draws on findings from the PILC’s casework and litigation over the last three years, as well as witness testimonies from survivors and frontline domestic violence advocates across all thirty-two London boroughs.
It found there were long delays in making decisions around housing for survivors; unsuitable offers of temporary and long-term accommodation; and failures to provide emergency accommodation to survivors and their children.
The report also identified cases where there was the imposition of unlawfully high evidence thresholds before support was provided, and a failure to apply the statutory definition of domestic abuse.
PILC warned that council ‘gatekeeping’ was having a serious impact on survivors, with some being forced to remain in properties where they are at risk or having no option but to return to the perpetrator of domestic abuse.
The law centre also said that ‘gatekeeping’ across local authorities in London has worsened over the last decade as a consequence of austerity and a chronic shortage of social housing.
