Housing associations are becoming increasingly important as providers of social housing. If the present government's stock transfer plans proceed (DETR and DSS, 2000), they will take over the role of being the main provider of social rented housing from local authorities by 2004. This increasing privatisation of social housing stock is paralleled by the continuing fragmentation of public housing policy. The present study illustrates what this may mean in practice for homeless women who have left violent men and need to find a new home.

The primary homelessness legislation in force at the time of this study was the 1996 Housing Act. This has now been superceded by the 2002 Homelessness Act, which provides local authorities with new duties as well as amending some of those originally found in the 1996 Act. The aim of the new legislation is to provide a more constructive response to homeless people than was possible before. The new legislation will reinforce the practice of local authorities which have been offering a sympathetic response to homeless women who have escaped domestic violence, including the local authority in this study.

The 2002 Homelessness Act expects local authorities to review homelessness in their areas and prepare a strategy every five years to respond to it. This strategy should cover preventative measures, temporary accommodation and support. The 1996 Act has been amended so that ‘priority need’ status has been extended to single people who have experienced or who are at risk of violence and who are considered to be vulnerable. The restriction of two years for the provision of temporary accommodation has been abolished: temporary accommodation is to be available for as long as it takes the applicant to be provided with permanent accommodation. The local authority duty to consider private sector alternatives before acting itself is also abolished. Part VI of the 1996 Act is amended by the 2002 Act so that more groups are included that must be given reasonable preference within local authorities’ allocation schemes, including homeless people.

The local authority in this study will be able to build on the sympathetic approach that it provided despite the restrictions of the 1996 Act. The 2002 Homelessness Act also gives it another opportunity, via the strategy it must prepare, to be more proactive in relation to housing association policy and practice in relation to homelessness, domestic violence and housing.