Housing against domestic abuse

Housing against domestic abuse

The Housing Board is very pleased to be working with partners at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough’s Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Partnership, set up to “reduce the harm, risk and costs associated with domestic abuse and sexual violence, and to prevent these crimes occurring across Cambridgeshire”.

This work includes supporting the work of the Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. The alliance was set up by three partners: Gentoo, Peabody and Standing Together Against Domestic Violence.

The partnership can summarise its work as “leading change for cohesive policies and strategies for tackling domestic abuse and housing globally“. These slides outline the work DAHA is undertaking in our area.

A report by Kelly Henderson of DAHA; Safe at home helps make the business case for housing providers tackling domestic abuse.

Benefits of DAHA accreditation

  • Improves staff confidence in identifying and dealing with domestic abuse.
  • Standardises processes so residents get the right response every time.
  • Increases staff skills and their interaction with local initiatives, by adopting industry-standard referral tools.
  • Reduces costs to organisations from domestic abuse related repairs.
  • Reduces costs to public purse in relation to domestic abuse via earlier interventions by housing providers.

Update on DAHA accreditation at March 2025

  • In the Housing Board area, the following partners are DAHA accredited:
    • Cambridge City Council
    • Cross Keys Homes
    • c
    • d

Please do get in touch if you are DAHA accredited, work in Cambridgehisre Peterborough or West Suffolk,and would like to be added to this list! Just email sue.beecroft@cambridge.gov.uk

Whole housing

The mission is to improve housing options for families affected by domestic abuse through a ‘whole housing approach’ rather than just one size fits all approach.

The vision is to develop and model Whole Housing  approaches and to evaluate their impact in terms of

  • Reducing homelessness
  • Early intervention
  • Increasing tenancy sustainment
  • Providing move on options for families affected by domestic abuse.

These slides set out more about the whole housing approach .

Reciprocal lettings

Locally, housing providers (including housing associations and local authorities) are signing up to a reciprocal lettings agreement with Cambridgeshire Specialist Domestic Abuse  Services ( with Standing Together, DAHA, Safer London as supporting partners).

This is a voluntary collaboration allowing tenants with a social tenancy at risk of harm from domestic / sexual violence and other violence against women and girls, to move to another local authority area and keep a social tenancy.  In some instances when assessed as safe to do so, the reciprocal may also be used to relocate a perpetrator of abuse, for instance on release from prison.

The referring housing provider then ‘owes’ an equal size property to another household at risk in Cambridgeshire through a centralised system.

The Cambridgeshire Housing Reciprocal arrangement should be used where housing providers cannot manage the risk of harm to a person fleeing violence or abuse within their own housing stock.

Here are three useful links: