The Women in Safe Homes fund is proud to be working with expert housing partner Refuge to offer dispersed accommodation for the women in the fund who are often escaping domestic violence and multiple forms of abuse. This year, as many of the properties have been handed over, the partners were able to support more and more women with complex needs who might have been struggling to access their services before. 

Refuges provide safe and emergency accommodation for shared and /or women and younger children. The fund has partnered with Refuge to purchase a 7-bed refuge in London which has housed 13 women and children so far. Generally, women will use this accommodation type as a short-term place to initially start their recovery before they move on into longer-term and permanent housing. However, women-only refuges are not best-suited to everyone on their recovery journey, as there are certain groups of people with wider needs who may find it difficult to be settled in women-only accommodation. These could be people with physical and/or learning disabilities, families with older teenage boys, or those with pets. Refuge were able, through providing dispersed accommodation, to give survivors the same level of support as woman in their refuges whilst providing an opportunity for longer–term, settled housing. 

For the Women in Safe Homes fund, some women are better supported within dispersed accommodation. Some mental health conditions, like severe anxiety, are better suited for dispersed accommodation, as it takes away additional stressors that communal living might represent for women who are struggling with this condition. Some physical health conditions, including for immunocompromised women, also make a stay in a refuge impossible whereas a separate flat provides the required safety and does not further impact the health condition. Similarly, partners have reported that housing women who experience honour-based violence is significantly better in dispersed accommodation since it provides an isolated and healing environment for women who might run into similar re-traumatising events at a general refuge. 

Nineteen homes are being purchased by the fund – a mix of dispersed flats and small family homes - as part of Refuge’s new pilot dispersed accommodation programme in partnership with Warwickshire County Council. These homes will offer a different type of safe emergency accommodation, rather than a refuge, to support to survivors of domestic abuse in the county. These homes are small clusters of one-, two- and three-bedroom homes across the five Warwickshire districts, with at least one adapted and accessible property in each district. They will be fully furnished, be close to services like schools and public transport, and have discreet but effective security. There will also be a dedicated space in each cluster of homes as a support hub and space for staff to base themselves. 10 properties have been purchased so far, which are currently housing 10 women and children, with an additional 9 being sourced. 

Amy Davies, Project Manager at Refuge, says, “It’s been an incredible journey for us, around being able to have quite a bit of say as to what those properties look like, where they’re going to be, making the Women in Safe Homes fund ideal for our project.”  The range of accommodation provided by the fund and its housing partners demonstrates a commitment to understanding the complex needs facing many of these women in housing crisis: women surviving abuse and violence need to be able to access flexible services that acknowledge the multiple, complex issues they are facing.  
 
About the Women in Safe Homes fund  

The Women in Safe Homes fund is a gender-lens impact investment property fund helping address the housing crisis for women escaping domestic abuse, leaving the criminal justice system without a home to go to and at risk of or experiencing homelessness. It was launched in December 2020 as a joint venture of Resonance and Patron Capital because there is a chronic shortage of safe, decent and affordable housing for women at risk of and experiencing homelessness.  

In 2023, 1.4 million women in the UK experienced domestic abuse, one of the leading causes of women’s homelessness, with 70% of survivors having a housing need.  

The fund raised £29m from over twenty impact investors and has now closed, focusing on deployment, and has so far purchased 78 properties for its nine housing partners. So far, over 350 women and children have been housed by the fund.