
Legal win in battle for women only refuges for homeless women
Significant cuts
We welcome the success of the legal challenge to Camden Council’s practice of accommodating homeless women fleeing abuse in shared hostels with men. The Unite housing workers branch supported PILC (Public Interest Law Centre) in this challenge.
This situation arose because Camden Council has made significant cuts to services to women only hostel accommodation.
Needs budget
We join PILC in again calling on local councils not to make cuts to services; to stop carrying out Government austerity policies, and to prioritise people’s needs. What this means in reality is that council’s should set a ‘needs budget’, taking in the real needs of working class people and marginalised communities and not a budget dictated to be central government. Councils in general, and our elected representatives in particular, need to stand up and fight back!
Survivors and specialist organisations have achieved a significant victory in Camden, with the Council responding positively to our client’s legal challenge.
The case was brought in order to challenge the lawfulness of placing homeless women who have fled domestic violence in shared accommodation with men. Women’s Aid Federation of England represented by Bhatt Murphy intervened in the litigation to demonstrate that this case was not an isolated incident.
For full details see PILC press statement.