From safety to stability: Access to
move-on accommodation after refuge

From Safety to Stability: Access to move-on accommodation after refuge explores the journeys of survivors who are ready to leave refuge and move-on into long-term or permanent housing. To do this, we looked at On Track data from 34 refuge services across England and by conducting focus groups with frontline refuge workers. We found that the length of time survivors spend in refuge is significantly increasing caused by three main barriers to sourcing move-on accommodation, notably local authority housing teams’ lack of understanding of the legal rights of survivors. The report illustrates that urgent action is needed to improve access to move-on accommodation and enable refuges to meet the demand for their service.  

Key Findings  

Access to move-on accommodation has become more difficult, significantly increasing the length of time survivors spend in service.  

• The average length of stay in refuge has increased by 50 days. For residents moving into social housing, this increase was nearly two months.   

• The proportion of survivors moving into social housing has increased by 10.1% yet the proportion of survivors moving into private rented accommodation has halved.   

• The national housing crisis, local authorities’ lack of understanding of the housing rights of survivors of domestic abuse and the limited availability of suitable housing create barriers to sourcing move-on accommodation.   

Lack of access to move-on accommodation is negatively impacting the day-to-day work in refuge.  

• The largest increase in length of time spent in refuge was between the financial years 2022-23 and 2023-24. During this time, services in our sample supported 114 fewer survivors. Limited access to move-on accommodation is reducing refuge services’ ability to meet demand.  

• As survivors spend more time in refuge, their immediate domestic abuse support needs are met. Refuge workers reported having to spend time working outside of their specialisms which they are not sufficiently resourced to do.   

• The additional pressure of the limited access to move-on accommodation is placing of refuge services is making the management of refuge more difficult and contributing to a burnt-out workforce.   

The lack of access to move-on accommodation is disrupting women and children’s process of recovery from domestic abuse.  

• When survivors are unable to access move-on accommodation at an appropriate time, survivors can become retraumatised and dependent on the safety measures in the refuge, negatively impacting their wellbeing.  

• For some, the delayed access to stable and long-term housing means that they will feel like they have no choice but to return to a perpetrator(s) or an address known to a perpetrator(s).   

• Children who are unable to access move-on accommodation face significant disruption to their wellbeing and school experience. Many children also become dependent on the safety features in refuge and their needs are often ignored by local authority housing teams.  

Recommendations   

• Provide all local authority housing teams receive specialist and regular training about domestic abuse  

• Implement a new national ‘link up’ mechanism between refuge services and housing associations recognising the need to a cross-country approach to move-on accommodation1.  

• Adopt a Whole Housing Approach to domestic abuse to improve survivors’ access to all forms of housing, in particular social housing2.  

• Sustainably fund refuge services on a multi-year basis across the country.

© Women’s Aid, June 2025