Perpetrators of abuse should be removed from family homes rather than survivors of violence

Published: Tuesday, February 10, 2026

The National Women’s Council says women and children are being trapped between abuse and homelessness

The National Women’s Council is calling for stronger legal protections that would allow women and children in abusive situations to remain safely in the family home, and for perpetrators to be removed instead.

In paper published today, NWC finds that women seeking to escape domestic violence with their children are faced with stark choices – often having to choose between homelessness or returning to their abuser. Where they make the decision to leave, they move from one emergency accommodation centre or refuge to another, and face systems – such as the justice, housing, and social protection systems – that do not coordinate with each other.

The paper finds that family homelessness is gendered, with more than 56% of families in homelessness headed by a lone parent, the vast majority of whom are women. NWC’s Executive Director Corrinne Hasson said:

“We know that there are over 5000 children in Ireland’s homeless services, with more than 4,500 women in emergency accommodation. But these figures are just the tip of the iceberg, because the official statistics don’t count women in refuges, or families sleeping on couches. We simply don’t know how many women and families are in homelessness. What we do know is that domestic violence is a leading cause of women’s homelessness, and that the housing crisis is enabling exploitation of women, for example in sex for rent exploitation.”

NWC’s Senior Policy Coordinator (Violence Against Women) Ivanna Youtchak said:

“The housing crisis is compounding the shocking level of violence against women. The impact on women of domestic violence or sex for rent exploitation is severe and long-lasting. Women leaving abuse – often with children – encounter a system with severely limited availability due to high demand, capable of meeting only short-term emergency accommodation needs. Once that immediate crisis period is over, many survivors are left with no long-term housing options. For children already traumatised by domestic violence, instability and moving around between services is profoundly destabilising. More must be done to keep women and children in their homes, and in their communities, to stop them from falling through the cracks in the first place.”

NWC also says that some groups of women are much more likely to experience the housing crisis, such as lone parents, Traveller and Roma women, and women in international protection. The paper makes specific recommendations to protect these groups from homelessness, and to improve their access to supports in homelessness.

The paper also acknowledges progress in the Third National Strategy on DSGBV with clear goals to deliver safe and accessible short and long-term accommodation; and the new Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025-2030 in recognising domestic abuse as one of the leading causes of homelessness among women.

NWC's submission will inform the development of the Child and Family Homelessness Action Plan, which is being coordinated by the Department of the Taoiseach and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The publication of this Action Plan is expected in Q2 2026.

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Read here NWC’s submission to the Child and Family Homelessness Action Plan: https://www.nwci.ie/images/uploads/NWC_submission_to_consultation_on_Child_and_Family_Homelessness_Action_Plan_Final.pdf

For comment: Corrinne Hasson and Ivanna Youtchak

Find here NWC’s 2025 report on Violence Against Women and the Housing Crisis: https://www.nwci.ie/learn/article/housing_solutions_are_core_to_ending_violence_against_women

For more information, please contact Sinéad Nolan, NWC Senior Communications Coordinator sineadn@nwci.ie

Notes:

About NWC

The National Women’s Council is the leading national representative organisation for women and women’s groups in Ireland, founded in 1973. We have over 190 member groups and a large and growing community of individual supporters.

The ambition of the National Women’s Council is an Ireland where every woman enjoys true equality and no woman is left behind. This ambition shapes and informs our work, and, with our living values, how we work.

We are a movement-building organisation rooted in our membership, working on the whole island of Ireland. We are also part of the international movement to protect and advance women’s and girls’ rights. Our purpose is to lead action for the achievement of women’s and girls’ equality through mobilising, influencing, and building solidarity. Find out more on www.nwci.ie