Introduction

For the past 25 years it has been recognised in the UK that many women need access to short and long-term rented council housing to enable them to leave violent men. Since the 1977 Housing (Homeless Persons) Act, local authorities have had an important role to play in providing accommodation to women who have become homeless because of domestic violence. However, their role is now changing. Some of these changes were initiated by former Conservative governments, although they are being developed further under the current Labour administration (DETR and DSS, 2000). By focusing on the work of privatised and independent housing associations, this book examines the realities for homeless women of the fragmentation of direct state provision of council housing.

On average, between 10% and 25% of the total number of households accepted as statutory homeless each year by local authorities are women who are homeless as a result of domestic violence (DoE, DETR and ODPM, Quarterly returns for each year [ODPM, 2002c]; see also Chapter Two). Throughout the 1990s, the local authority in the study reported in this book annually accepted approximately 2,000 homeless people as statutory homeless. By the mid-1990s, 30% were women fleeing domestic violence. 14% of those were black or Asian. This authority was known to respond sympathetically to any person who was homeless because of domestic violence or the risk of violence, whether or not they had dependent children. One question I asked in this research was whether the 1996 Housing Act affected this approach. This study's findings provide the grounding for any future evaluation of the impact of the more generous provisions of the 2002 Homelessness Act.

Three different housing associations were case studies for this research: one small black housing association (Tulip HA), one city-wide housing association (Bluebell HA), and one multi-regional housing association (Foxglove HA). Each one worked within the boundaries of the local authority which was included in the wider case study. This enabled me to look at the local authority service provided to homeless women and the impact of local authority ‘enabling’ on the services provided by these three associations. Housing association staff of various professional levels were interviewed, as were women tenants who had been rehoused by these associations because of domestic violence. A wide range of local authority and hostel staff were also interviewed. Each interview was tape-recorded.