Domestic Violence

Survivors of domestic violence continued to face housing related challenges in 2023. With the assistance of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, MLRC commissioned a report by Dr. Sarah Hamill exploring these continuing issues entitled “Social Housing, Domestic Violence and the Public Sector Duty”. MLRC are proud to continue to assist a range of domestic violence refuge providers across Ireland. Despite national guidance calling on local authorities to use their discretion under law to assist persons escaping domestic violence, our assistance was regularly called upon by these partner organisations and directly by survivors themselves. A consistent role for MLRC was the preparation of affidavits for survivors, often insisted upon by local authorities in situations where the applicant for social housing supports may be a co-owner of a property with an abusive ex-partner or where the applicant’s name was on a social housing tenancy. In addition, MLRC had to engage directly on behalf of clients in situations where they and their advocates had been unable to get the results required from local authorities. This included clients who, at the end of their stay in a refuge, were refused emergency accommodation placements or transfers to alternative accommodation. In addition, MLRC engaged in cases where local authorities refused to deem a client homeless on the basis that they could return to live with their abuser. Challenging Administrative Decision Making For all organisations working in the area of housing and homelessness, 2023 brought challenges as the housing and homelessness crisis continued to deepen. However, MLRC identified through our casework a worrying response to the increased numbers of people seeking the support of housing authorities. Despite a duty to provide reasons for decisions being intrinsic to administrative decision making, as consistently upheld by the Superior Courts, MLRC were routinely contacted by clients who had received no written reasons for decisions from local authorities at all. This failure to provide reasons occurred where applications for social housing, priority status, medical priority, and even homeless supports had been rejected. MLRC’s engagement resulted in an understanding that housing staff across the country appear unfamiliar with this legal responsibility. In addition, a lack of any clear appeal structure for decisions resulted in a divergence in approach across different local authority areas. Where reasons for decisions were provided, they were not always legally robust.