Single Homeless Project: Overcoming Barriers to Supporting Survivors Experiencing Domestic Abuse and Homelessness

Domestic abuse both causes and perpetuates homelessness for women. Since men are over-sampled when it comes to homelessness, there has been a failure to recognise, count and respond to women’s homelessness effectively according to research conducted by the University of York. Women experiencing multiple disadvantages within the intersection of domestic abuse and homelessness face significant barriers to receiving support, propelled by a lack of coordination between services. This lack of specialist support includes but is not limited to, a reluctancy to house couples experiencing known domestic abuse as well as an acute underestimation of the numbers of women living in these situations.

Lucy Campbell is Head of Multiple Disadvantage – Service Transformation at the London-based homelessness charity Single Homeless Project. Through identifying severe social problems that are co-occurring and mutually reinforcing, she advocates for long term, relational and holistic support as the only method to engage women experiencing domestic abuse and homelessness.

In this video, Campbell outlines the key challenges facing these women and suggests integrated responses to reach survivors remaining in dangerous and challenging situations. She presents the findings of crucial research conducted by Fulfilling Lives in Camden and Islington (FLIC) in 2021, with video excerpts of survivors who shared their experiences as part of the research. Campbell promotes the offering of choice and control to overcome powerlessness caused by trauma, advocating for an understanding of trauma in the homelessness sector as a gendered experience.

Domestic abuse both causes and perpetuates homelessness for women. In this video, Lucy Campbell, Head of Multiple Disadvantage at Single Homeless Project, discusses the intersection of domestic abuse with women’s homelessness and other forms of multiple disadvantage experienced by women. She shares research backed strategies for a ‘whole person’ response over siloed commissioning, aiming to counteract women’s experiences of judgement and blame with strength-based approaches.