16 Days of Activism: Interactions Between Homelessness and Domestic Violence
Author: Siobhán Merriman-Breuer
As part of the 2025 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence, this blog examines how homelessness and domestic violence intersect along a continuum of harm. The continuum begins with abuse itself, but for many women in Ireland, leaving an abusive relationship does not mark a transition to safety. Instead, harm often changes form. Homelessness and systemic barriers can prolong trauma long after the initial physical violence stops.
For survivors, the pathway from abuse to safety is far from linear. This blog explores three points along this continuum: fleeing domestic violence, navigating homelessness, and feeling trapped by the housing crisis. Together, these experiences show how gaps in Ireland’s housing and support systems can reproduce vulnerability, retraumatise, and block recovery.
Fleeing Domestic Violence
Although the continuum of harm is most evident in the abusive relationship, it also appears in the process of fleeing. Leaving should mark the beginning of safety, yet for many women it results in homelessness and continued vulnerability.
Refuges remain the most appropriate accommodation for victims of domestic violence, but Ireland faces a severe and longstanding shortage. In 2024, nine counties had no refuge at all. Where refuges do exist, stays are time limited and transitional housing is scarce. Under the Zero Tolerance strategy, the Government has committed to doubling refuge spaces by 2026, but until this expansion is delivered, limited capacity forces many women into emergency homeless accommodation.
Securing emergency accommodation can be stressful and bureaucratic, pressures intensified for women fleeing abuse. The 2017 Guidance for Housing Authorities states that survivors can qualify under section 2 of the Housing Act 1988. However, section 2 also requires assessing whether applicants could secure housing through their ‘own resources’, wording that does not reflect the realities of domestic violence. A woman may technically have resources but be unable to access them due to economic abuse or coercive control.
The Guidance acknowledges both the limits of emergency accommodation and the value of specialist refuge support, but outreach support in practice is inconsistent. Women are left coping with both the trauma of abuse and the stresses of homelessness, often without adequate help.
These systemic gaps extend the continuum of harm. Limited refuges, unclear guidance, and the lack of transitional housing entwine gender-based violence with housing insecurity. The wording of the 2017 Guidance is too vague to reflect the realities of domestic violence and fails to provide an effective response. Similarly, the Zero Tolerance strategy does not acknowledge how deeply intertwined domestic violence and homelessness are, leaving survivors without the integrated support they need.
Gender Based Violence Within Homelessness
Once a woman becomes homeless, the continuum of harm evolves again. Homelessness can create environments where gender-based violence is more likely, and where women who have already experienced abuse face new forms of risk and re-traumatisation.
Many women must rely on mixed gender emergency accommodation, which can feel unsafe and distressing, particularly for those who have survived male violence. Some avoid these settings entirely or stay only briefly, contributing to forms of hidden homelessness such as couch surfing, self-funded stays in hotels or B&Bs, or informal arrangements. These unstable living situations heighten vulnerability to coercive control, exploitation, and further violence.
One clear example of gender-based violence linked to Ireland’s wider housing crisis is the ‘sex for rent’ crisis, highlighted in a 2024 report by the National Women’s Council. Landlords offering reduced or free rent in exchange for sexual acts are exploiting women’s housing insecurity. This form of abuse disproportionately affects women with precarious housing options, including migrants, students, and those already navigating hidden homelessness.
Even the process of exiting homelessness can expose women to further harm. The location of available social housing is also critical. Being rehoused too close to an abuser can undermine safety and recovery. While the 2017 Guidance advises flexibility in applying the local connection test to allow safe relocation, implementation is inconsistent. Without trauma-informed policies, many women remain in survival mode long after fleeing abuse.
Wraparound supports, demonstrated in gendered Housing First projects, show that women benefit from gender sensitive, long-term support that enables safety and stability. However, gender-specific housing solutions remain under-explored in Ireland
Homelessness is not a neutral state. For women, it is a gendered risk environment that can reproduce and reshape harm.
Trapped Due to Housing Insecurity
For many women, the continuum of harm prevents escape altogether. Ireland’s housing crisis, characterised by record numbers in emergency accommodation, soaring rents, and limited supply, forces many women to make an impossible decision: remain with an abuser or risk homelessness. This decision is even harder for those fleeing with children or dependents.
Housing insecurity therefore acts as a powerful barrier to leaving, extending the continuum of harm before escape even begins. Research consistently shows that the home is one of the most dangerous places for women. Since 1996, Women’s Aid reports that 63% of women killed in Ireland were killed in their own homes. When safe housing is unavailable, abuse can continue, in extreme cases resulting in femicide.
Our own 2021 research on domestic violence and family homelessness highlights the urgent need for mechanisms that allow women to remain safely in their own homes. Yet the process of re-ownership is often legally complex and slow. Co-owned properties require lengthy legal processes. In social housing, the 2017 Guidance places responsibility on local authorities to resolve joint tenancy issues, but in practice many women are treated as having ‘given up’ their tenancy and are denied alternative housing. Private renters may struggle to maintain a tenancy alone, while schemes such as HAP and Rent Supplement are constrained by landlord refusal, rent caps, top ups, and restrictive eligibility criteria.
When women cannot secure safe, affordable housing, they cannot escape violence. In this way, the housing crisis becomes a direct contributor to gender-based violence.
Conclusion
The continuum of harm begins with domestic abuse, but for too many women in Ireland it continues long after they leave their abuser, through housing insecurity, unsafe emergency accommodation, and systemic barriers that limit access to stable, safe homes. To break this cycle, we must replace it with a continuum of care that supports women from crisis through long-term recovery. It is also essential to recognise that Traveller and Roma women, migrant women, and women with disabilities face additional structural barriers that must be adequately addressed.
This 16 Days of Activism, we must understand that ending gender-based violence requires not only tackling abuse itself but ensuring every survivor has access to safe, stable housing that supports recovery and long-term security.