Why can’t a survivor of domestic violence stay in their social home, rather than the perpetrator?

Most women who flee to safe houses run by Sonas, a domestic-violence charity, have moved out of social housing, says Fiona O'Malley, the organisation’s chief executive.

Because in cases of domestic violence, councils don’t remove the perpetrator from the home, she says. Victims are forced to leave instead, often with the children, she says. 

“That then leaves the women in a very precarious, detrimental position whereby they're forced into displacement,” says O’Malley

Given the lengths of social housing lists, they’re not going to be able to get a new social home anytime soon – it can take many years. 

A Department of Housing guidance document for councils on how to help victim-survivors suggests they should use supports like HAP to rent a home in the private market, but that can be a challenge, too.

Things can be especially difficult for women who are not Irish citizens, and whose eligibility for housing supports depended on their partner, the guidance document says.

So, following a stint in refuge, many victim-survivors become homeless, O’Malley says. Because of that, some women even lose custody of their children, she says. 

People Before Profit Councillor Hazel de Nortúin says domestic violence is a major driver of family homelessness in the area that she represents of Ballyfermot-Drimnagh. 

Specific numbers are not available because statistics don’t break out domestic violence as a cause of homelessness, instead including it under the more general heading “relationship breakdown”.

Two of Dublin’s councils – the other two didn’t respond to queries – say their hands are tied, they can’t do anything differently. Because they don’t have legal powers to remove a perpetrator of domestic violence from social housing. 

“At present, Fingal County Council is not authorised to remove either party's name from a joint tenancy without their consent,” said one spokesperson.

South Dublin County Council “is not authorised to remove a tenant from a dwelling”, said another. 

De Nortúin, the Dublin city councillor, said the Department of Housing needs to provide a framework for assessing whether a case is domestic violence and give the councils the tools to evict the perpetrator. 

“It needs a national solution to keep families in their homes,” she said. 

Indeed, the law has to change, said Paul Dornan, managing solicitor with Mercy Law Resource Centre. 

At the moment, a victim-survivor of domestic violence can apply for a court order to bar a perpetrator from a property. But even once granted, those court orders are not permanent, he said. 

Meanwhile, councils can evict for ant-social behaviour. But a government circular published with the 1997 Housing Act says that anti-social behaviour differs from domestic violence, said Dornan.

A Department of Housing spokesperson said that it has reviewed a different circular which it issued in January 2017, and is finalising its recommendations on changes to guidance on handling cases of domestic violence and possible changes to legislation. 

“In cases where the household is in local authority tenancy, local authorities will be asked to support the victim to remain in the home or return to the home where it is safe to do so and is the victim’s preference,” said the spokesperson. 

The department also plans to introduce changes to allow survivors of domestic violence to transfer their social housing applications to a new area, said the spokesperson.

No legal mechanism

Mercy Law has been asked, many times, if there is anything that victim-survivors can do to have an abuser’s name permanently removed from a social-housing joint tenancy, or to seek to have the abuser evicted from the home, said Dornan. 

“The answer currently is that there is no appropriate or clear mechanism to allow for this,” he said.

Both South Dublin County Council and Fingal County Council said that they can’t remove perpetrators, under current procedures. 

It isn’t always easy for councils to assess the truth of allegations of domestic violence, said a spokesperson for Fingal County Council. 

Cases “are often complex and may involve multiple court orders, sometimes against each party”, they said.

The spokesperson for South Dublin County Council said that victims of domestic violence can apply for court orders to remove the perpetrator from the home, which should be enforced by Gardaí. 

But, even with a barring order, the council won’t take the abuser's name off the tenancy, said the spokesperson. They stay on it until they formally surrender their interest in that tenancy, they said.  

O’Malley, of Sonas, said that an agency with expertise in domestic violence could assess the situation and provide a report to the council.

Still though, councils have to go to court to evict someone, said de Nortúin, the People Before Profit councillor. 

So national government needs to bring in clear legislation and a framework by which councils can assess cases of alleged domestic violence and give them the power to evict perpetrators, she said. 

Rejected by homeless services

As the housing crisis deepens, people fleeing domestic violence find that even homeless services are often full, said de Nortúin.

“There is absolutely nowhere to go,” she said. “All these options are drying up as the crisis is getting worse.”

Often, people fleeing domestic violence move into refuges in other parts of the country, in counties away from where they started out, she said. 

It might not be safe for them to go back to where they were living, said de Nortúin. 

Councils generally don’t accept people from other counties onto their housing list, because they have a local connection test, and they don’t have evidence of living for a long time in the area.   

That means domestic violence survivors are often turned away from emergency accommodation. 

Said Dornan: “The reality that we would observe is that where people face discharge from a refuge and do not feel that they can return to their homes, people often face barriers in getting a local authority to agree to provide emergency accommodation.” 

The Department of Housing spokesperson said that councils should offer housing support to domestic-violence survivors and allow them to apply in the county they are living in, regardless of where they started out. 

The department is working on a protocol with the councils, they said.

In the future, domestic-violence survivors, who are also social housing applicants, should be able to transfer their years on the waiting list between council areas, said the spokesperson. 

The ripples

O’Malley, of Sonas, said a council's failure to evict the perpetrator from the home often means that the perpetrator gets custody of children.

Where there are court cases, some judges will rule that children would be better off at home rather than in homeless services, says O’Malley. “So they will often send the children back, back to the perpetrator.”

If the person inflicting the violence has not hurt the children in the past, the judge might decide it's better to send them back, said O’Malley, but that misunderstands the nature of domestic violence. 

“When the children are on their own, with the perpetrators of violence, even if they don't have a history or don't initially intend to harm the children, they can often do it as a means of getting to the mother,” she said.

Given this, many women return to their original home to try to keep the children safe, said O’Malley. 

All of this could be prevented if councils had the power to evict the perpetrators of domestic violence, she says. 

Zero tolerance?

In June 2022, the Department of Justice published its national strategy on domestic violence, to run from 2022 to 2026, called Zero Tolerance. 

A key action of the strategy is to remove legal barriers that can prevent people experiencing domestic violence from remaining at home when it is safe to do so, said a spokesperson for the Department of Housing. 

“It is recognised that this is an important factor in preventing homelessness,” they said.

But in reality the issues haven’t been addressed, said Dornan, even in cases where the state owns the property, where it is social housing.

Contrary to statements issued by the previous Minister for Housing, Fianna Fáil TD Darragh O’Brien, councils cannot use their powers to address anti-social behaviour in cases of domestic violence, he said.

The circular issued by the Department of Housing in 1997, together with legislation, makes that clear, he said. 

It “expressly states that local authorities should not consider domestic violence as falling under the definition of anti-social behaviour”, he said. Those are to be dealt with under the Domestic Violence Act 1995, says that circular. 

Meanwhile, the January 2017 guidance issued by the Department of Housing, appears to envisage that councils would support survivors to get back into the home. But it doesn’t outline how they would do that. 

“In some instances, a victim, who is a joint housing authority tenant, may return to the family home with the justice system ensuring the exclusion of the perpetrator,” says that guidance. 

Councils could, in partnership with An Garda Síochána and domestic violence services,  create a safe room in a council home once the perpetrator is gone, it says. “Works could include installing reinforced doors and bolts, lighting and a communications point to be funded via housing authorities’ standard improvement works programmes.” 

But Dornan says that the government needs to change the law. “There is currently no satisfactory legal mechanism to remove a domestic abuser from social housing,” he says. 

Yes, victim-survivors can seek various orders under the Domestic Violence Act 2018, he said. But “these orders are not always available immediately and often those seeking them are left unrepresented in court due to well-known pressures on the civil legal aid scheme”.

It is not yet clear if the departmental review will result in a change in the law. 

“Further work is ongoing to consider the implications of the review, including whether legislative change is appropriate in such cases,” says the spokesperson for the Department of Housing. “This is a complex area and requires detailed and careful analysis, which is ongoing.”