In June, Airbnb announced that it extended its partnership with Safe Ireland and Women's Aid to provide free emergency accommodation for domestic violence survivors across Ireland. The decision came as the country was preparing to lift lockdown restrictions while emergency refuge services continued to operate with reduced capacity and an increase in demand.
The initial partnership launched in June 2020 as Ireland prepared to reopen from the first lockdown and provided 2,000 nights of emergency accommodation.
Domestic violence services have continued to see demand through 2021 with many survivors presenting with highly complex needs and heightened trauma from months of living with their abusers in extended lockdown.
The need to ensure safe social distancing in specialist domestic violence accommodation services reduced capacity by 25 per cent and there was concern that demand may increase further over the summer months. Last year, July and August were the busiest months as women are often more reticent to leave homes while children are in school.
Safe Ireland’s Tracking the Shadow Pandemic reports carried out through 2020 show that, on average, 180 women and 275 children looked for emergency accommodation every month between March and December. But in that same time, 2,159 requests for refuge could not be met, indicating the importance of having other accommodation choices available.
Support services
“We have suffered from a double pandemic over the past year and a half,” says Safe Ireland chief executive Mary McDermott. “We had Covid-19 and an increase in domestic violence. We knew it would rise and we have seen an increase of 25-30 per cent in contacts to services since the beginning of the pandemic.”
Safe Ireland is a network of 38 refuges and support services around the country, she explains. “Our membership covers much of Ireland but there are nine counties up the middle of the country which have no refuges at all. There is a real shortfall in accommodation for people fleeing abusive relationships.”
She points out the complexity of the issues being addressed. “You have to think about what it takes for a woman to flee an abusive relationship. It can be relatively easy for a man to leave whereas for a woman the most unsafe thing she might do is leave. She needs to have a plan for her children and so on and that’s where support services come in.”
An unexpected positive aspect of the double pandemic has been increased awareness of the domestic violence problem. “It helped pull it out from under the rock where it was hidden,” says McDermott. “It’s a large-scale pervasive social problem that affects all classes and runs along a very clear axis of power imbalance.”
The Airbnb support has been very welcome. “They approached us very, very early on and continue to offer support.”
Accommodation isn't the only need, however. "We set up a Covid Emergency Fund with support from Bank of Ireland and from the business community," McDermott explains. "We worked through our network and used the fund to help women escape from abusive relationships. We used it to help women meet their most immediate needs for things like food, clothes for their children, insurance for their car, nappies, and heating bills when they do get accommodation."
‘Immediate sustenance’
It’s not abstract, she points out. “We provided very immediate sustenance and gave women the ability to protect their children and themselves. We had a three-day turnaround for the fund and that was really appreciated. We had local organisations calling to say they had a woman who needs money for nappies, to pay a heating bill, and so on and we were able to approve the requests within three days.”
There were also some issues with the standards of the refuges. “You should see how antiquated some of them are,” she says. “We see women who are trying to get out of an abusive home, and they might have a teenage child who won’t go to a place without wifi, that’s their lifeline. In one case, we supported a refuge to get wifi.”
The initial fund has now effectively been closed. “The money was running out, but Airbnb stepped in with a considerable donation. We have now set up a new future-facing sustainable fund, the Safe Ireland Survivors Fund. The international evidence shows that if women are given the short-term capacity to get up on their feet they will do it. Sometimes it’s short-term barriers that prevent them doing it and the fund will address that. It will help women and children get out of abusive relationships.”
‘Out of risk’
It’s not just about refuges, of course. “It has to be full wraparound support, you can’t just put a parent in a room with their children. They need support – financial, therapeutic, legal, court accompaniment and so on. We want to meet their immediate needs at the point of crisis to help them to help themselves. We want to take people out of risk and ensure they can get support from their local domestic violence specialist service.”
There is also a need for employers to be aware of domestic violence as an issue. McDermott points to cases where women have been sent home to work remotely when it is known she has an abusive partner also working at home. “It’s a health and safety issue as well as a HR issue. Employers have a responsibility to ensure their employees have a safe place to work. There is a need for employers to take greater account of domestic violence. The domestic violence leave legislation has gone through and that makes it force majeure leave. We’ve already had companies coming to us for training for staff to recognise the signs of domestic violence in employees and that’s very welcome.”
