We find it very difficult institutionally [as housing professionals] to step back, and say, well actually, is there something more complex behind this [homelessness]. We have reporting systems that say tick box A or tick box B. It is the same with rent arrears, so as soon as someone is in significant rent arrears, they are on a little pathway that ends with one of those letters with red writing on (that people put in the bin), that actually says, you know, you are going to go to court.

You [as a housing professional] are already on a way of thinking, whereas we know from the report that the CIH Cymru did ten years ago, that said domestic abuse, is one of the leading drivers of rent arrears. So, it is standing back and using professional judgement, looking at relationships and households in the round, and STOP expecting victims to be as pure as the driven snow, because if I was experiencing things that people are experiencing on a day-to-day basis, I do not think it would bring the best out in me. So why do we assume that of everybody else? …

I think that one of the things that dawned on me gradually, was, not just the fact that housing is where most domestic abuse takes place, and it can be a solution [for a domestic abuse survivor to move], but also how it can be a cause. And I think the housing shortage has contributed to living arrangements … meeting someone and moving in with them three months later, you will both save something on the rent as you only have one rent to pay … and then suddenly it all goes a bit wrong, the relationship needs to finish at that point, but housing keeps you together … there aren't enough places for people to live.