Harsh funding cuts mean we’re terrified all the time, warns struggling women’s refuge

DOMESTIC violence refuge boss Charlotte Kneer said she made a controversial decision to allow a documentary team inside her safehouse in a desperate bid to show how cuts are putting women’s lives at risk.

In a TV first, Channel 4’s Dispatches ‘Safe at Last: Inside a Women’s Refuge’ will air on Tuesday, following the lives of women and children fleeing abuse.

Charlotte, who is herself a domestic violence survivor, said: “From the minute I was asked to help make this film, day in and day out, it has caused me to lose sleep because I have had to make sure that everyone was kept as secure as possible.

"Refuges have to be kept hidden for a reason. Lives are at risk if women are tracked down but now lives are at risk because of government cuts too.

“It was a very difficult decision but one I still stand by because years of harsh cuts have amounted to abused women and children roaming the streets with no safe place to go.

“We used to be able to focus on caring but now we literally don’t know where our next lot of money is coming from.

The Government announced a landmark domestic violence bill in January which introduced the first ever statutory definition of domestic abuse to include economic abuse and controlling and manipulative abuse that isn’t physical.

But harsh cuts have left victims struggling to secure a refuge bed, with the most recent figures showing 60 per cent of them are unable to be housed, most commonly due to lack of space.

Now, as the boss of a refuge herself, it is Charlotte’s job to care for women and children who have been living her old nightmare. She says: “Doing this job gives me strength I didn’t know I had.”

Each family at the RBWA refuge lives independently but has access to specialist help from Family Support Workers, counselling and health advice.

There are trips to the cinema and seaside. Crucially, the refuge team distributes food vouchers, toys, toiletries, bedding and school uniform vouchers.

The families have often fled, fearing for their lives, with seconds to spare. They have nothing.

'I WILL DO WHATEVER IT TAKES'

Despite the risks involved in making the Dispatches documentary, Charlotte said she refuses to be cowed by fear: “There is no point in encouraging people to report this crime if there is nowhere for them to go.

"Shadows come into this refuge and women leave but we can only help aid these amazing transformations with the right support and security.”

Her therapeutic refuge currently costs £375,000 per year to run. £98,000 is funded by Surrey County Council; £115,000 comes from housing benefit and the rest must be found by Charlotte and her team through one-off grants and fundraising.

She added: “I will do whatever it takes to make sure we all survive.

"What we really need is corporate donations.”

Finally, Charlotte coyly reveals at least one happy ending in the documentary. “My family and I are now settled and happy in our new home.

"It is a huge relief not to be looking over my shoulder everyday and I can also reveal that I have been in a relationship for six months and we are looking to move in together.

"So it looks like I have got my happy ending and I’m determined to make it happen for all the other strong, amazing women who deserve the same.”

'HUGE RELIEF'

Sian Hawkins, Head of Campaigns and Public Affairs at Women’s Aid, explained why the organisation supported Charlotte’s decision to go public, adding: “Life-saving refuges have been doing extraordinary work hidden away in our communities for decades.

"The very real threat of abusers hunting down survivors and their children means that these refuges have had to keep their work secret.

“In recent years, squeezes to their budget mean that they have no choice but to shine a light on their work. Domestic abuse services around the country have been lurching from funding crisis to funding crisis with many having to reduce their provision or face closure.

"This is leaving more women and children with nowhere to turn. 94 women and 90 children were turned away from refuge on just one day in 2017.

"To survive many services are having to go public to ask you for your support. Reigate and Banstead Women’s Aid has taken the courageous step to work with Channel 4’s Dispatches on this TV first, Safe at Last: Inside a Women’s Refuge.

"By highlighting the value of their service and how they are saving lives against the odds, the refuge hopes that the general public will be moved to donate to them so that they can keep their doors open."

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