Statistics ‘ignore’ domestic violence victims

The scale of the homelessness crisis is being underestimated because official figures do not include women and children living in refuges, a national domestic violence charity has warned.

Safe Ireland says the statistics not only exclude the 4,000 mothers and children in emergency refuge accommodation each year, but also those who flee local authority homes because of violence but are not classed as homeless.

Those numbers are unclear but the fact that almost 5,000 requests for refuge had to be turned down last year suggest there are many more women who are effectively homeless because it is not safe to return to their home.