Domestic Abuse Housing Advice

If you are in immediate danger and fear for your safety, please dial 999.  The police can also help you access available support.

What is domestic abuse? 

Domestic abuse can be in many forms.  In whatever form it is never acceptable.  It is very common, and anyone can experience it, regardless of gender. 

Domestic abuse includes any incident or pattern of incidents of violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are, or have been, intimate partners or family members regardless of gender or sexuality.

Domestic abuse can include, although it is not limited to, the following:

• Coercive control
• Psychological and/or emotional abuse
• Physical abuse
• Sexual abuse
• Economic/ Financial abuse
• Harassment
• Stalking
• Online or digital abuse

Recognising Domestic Abuse

If you are suffering domestic abuse, you may feel isolated, hurt, upset, and scared.

Whilst Every situation is unique, there are common factors that link the experience of an abusive relationship.  Acknowledging these factors, it is an important step in preventing and stopping the abuse.  This list can help you to recognise if you, or someone you know, are in an abusive relationship.  They might include:

• Destructive criticism and verbal abuse: shouting, name calling, verbally threatening.
• Pressure tactics: sulking, threatening to withhold money, taking away, or destroying your mobile, threatening self-harm and suicide.
• Disrespect: persistently putting you down in front of other people; not listening or responding when you talk; interrupting your telephone calls; taking money from your purse without asking; refusing to help with childcare or housework.
• Breaking trust: lying to you; withholding information from you; being jealous; having other relationships; breaking promises and shared agreements.
• Isolation: monitoring or blocking your phone calls, e-mails, and social media accounts, telling you where you can and cannot go; preventing you from seeing friends and relatives; shutting you in the house.
• Harassment: following you, checking up on you, not allowing you any privacy, repeatedly checking to see who has phoned you, embarrassing you in public, accompanying you everywhere you go.
• Threats: making angry gestures, using physical size to intimidate, shouting you down, breaking things; punching walls, wielding a knife or a gun, threatening to kill or harm you and the children, threatening to kill or harm family pets, threats of suicide.
• Sexual violence: using force, threats, or intimidation to make you perform sexual acts, having sex with you when you don’t want it, forcing you to look at pornographic material, constant pressure, and harassment into having sex when you don’t want to, forcing you to have sex with other people.
• Physical violence: punching, slapping, hitting, biting, kicking, burning, strangling, pinning you down, holding you by the neck, restraining you.
• Denial: saying the abuse does not happen, saying you caused the abuse, saying you wind him/her up, saying they cannot control their anger, being publicly gentle and patient, crying and begging for forgiveness, saying it will never happen again.

Support Services Contact

The following are useful support services which can help you if you are suffering or recovering from domestic abuse:

Housing Advice and Options

If you are experiencing domestic abuse, there are different options you may wish to consider.  The options available to you will depend on your own individual circumstances, safety will always be considered first.

Measures to keep you in your own home

The Council offers a ‘Target Hardening Scheme’ which aims to prevent homelessness across all types of housing by providing additional security measures to your home.

It is available to any person living in Tamworth who is threatened with homelessness due to domestic abuse, hate crime, racial harassment, or other violence.  This will be confirmed by you Housing Solutions Officer who will liaise with Police and other partners to establish the details of the crime/ incidents and to determine what are the most appropriate measures. 

These measures allow survivors of domestic abuse, to feel more safe and secure to remain in their home.

There are specialist domestic abuse workers who can discuss alternative options that may be available so that you can remain at home if you want to.  You may be able to get certain court orders, protection orders or an injunction which may also allow you to feel safer, which could include for example a non-molestation order, occupation order or restraining order.

There is specialist advice available through the NDVA to help you get these.  You can sometimes get these free or by use of legal aid.  You can get more information using this link Domestic Violence & Abuse · Emergency Injunction Service (ncdv.org.uk)

Tamworth Borough Council work within the Community Safety Partnership and can signpost applicants to a wide range of support services and charitable organisations. 

Housing Register

Depending on your situation, you may no longer feel safe at home.  If this is the case, you may wish to apply for our housing register.  You can do this by registering on the My Tamworth Portal Home | Tamworth Borough Council.

You will be asked questions about your personal circumstances and if you qualify will be provided with banding in accordance with our Allocations Policy.

If you are working with any support agencies like New Era or Pathways you could get them to provide supporting information on your behalf.

Homeless application

If remaining at home means you will experience domestic abuse, then you may wish to consider making a homeless application to the Council.  This is because you may be considered as homeless if we determine it unreasonable and unsafe for you to continue to remain in your home.

You can make a homeless application by contacting the Housing Solutions Team on the details below.  You may wish to do this with specialist support from a domestic abuse worker to help you.

We may have to ask you questions about your housing history, who you lived with, instances of domestic abuse, other agencies that provide you with support, your health and income.  You may wish to have a support worker assist you when making the homeless application. 

We will work with you to find and secure accommodation, which will be done by completing a Personalised Housing Plan.  This plan will look further at your housing needs, wishes, and will list actions for you and us to complete.  It is important that you are honest with us during this assessment and provide us with all the information you can, so support can be tailored to you.

If you need to leave your accommodation urgently, we will need to consider what would be suitable for you. It may be that accommodation in the Borough is not suitable or safe, based on your personal circumstances. Options for safe accommodation may also include referrals to refuge or other safe accommodation.

Refuge

A refuge is a safe place to live if you need to escape immediate domestic abuse.

To find a place in a women’s refuge Call the free 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline (nationaldahelpline.org.uk) on 0808 2000 247. 

Refuge addresses and phone numbers are confidential and you must not give them to anyone else.  Refuge staff will tell you how to get there and what you should or can take with you. You will also get support to help you move on to long term accommodation.

If you are fleeing domestic abuse, emergency accommodation may be required.  Based on your personal circumstances, accommodation within the borough may not be suitable for your safety, refuge can be considered a safe accommodation. 

Moving on from Refuge 

If you are moving on from a refuge in Tamworth or wish to return to Tamworth after staying in a refuge elsewhere, you can apply to our Housing Register.  We may ask your support worker to supply supporting information to support your application.  We will consider your personal circumstances, including whether it would be safe for you to live in the area.

Contact us 

The Housing Solutions team are available to give full advice on your housing needs and explain what options are available to you should you find yourself Homeless or at risk of homelessness.

Email: Housingsolutions@tamworth.gov.uk
Tel: 01827 709709. 

If you are homeless due to Domestic Abuse and the council offices are closed, then you can contact the homelessness out of hours service on 01827 709709 and choose option 1.  You should only use this service if you have nowhere to stay immediately.