Housing support for victims of domestic abuse

If you have to leave your home because of violence, abuse or threatening behaviour, get help and find a safe place to stay.

Domestic abuse is the reason for a significant number of people to consider they are homeless. It can affect women and men of all ages and backgrounds. Domestic Abuse comes in many forms and is not limited to physical violence.

Find a place in a refuge

Domestic Abuse is never OK and if you are at risk you should contact the Police. You can also contact Pennine Domestic Abuse Partnership 24 hour help line 0800 0527222 which is staffed by trained domestic abuse workers. There are other Domestic Abuse organisations available too:-

There is further advice on our Domestic abuse section with a list of other places you can go for help.

To find a place in a refuge call the free National Domestic Abuse Helpline 0808 2000 247, 24 hours a day.

Help if you want to stay in your own home

You can stop your partner entering your home by getting an injunction to protect you and your family from domestic abuse. You can:

If the order bans your partner from your home you can make it safer by changing the locks and installing an alarm.

Help from Housing Solutions Services

Housing Solutions Service Officers are used to dealing with victims of Domestic Abuse.

Housing Solutions Service can help by providing you with advice and support about personal safety if you are at risk of abuse, helping you find a safe home or refuge, referring you for legal advice if needed. We do have responsibilities regarding safeguarding that mean we sometimes have to report concerns that a child is at risk that services may not know about.

We can offer advice and assistance that may allow you to remain in your current accommodation with support and possibly additional security being put in place. There may also be legal steps you can take that could protect you from a perpetrator approaching you, your family or your home.

If you are staying away from your home (perhaps with friends or family) because you believe it is not safe to return we may be able to assist you to move on from where you are staying temporarily.

If you cannot return to your home and have nowhere else to stay we will try to find you somewhere safe to stay. We would usually advise that a Refuge was the most suitable accommodation in this situation as there will be specialist support available to you as well as accommodation.

There are Women's Refuges in Kirklees, although for reasons of safety a local Refuge is not always appropriate, and we will sometimes look for Refuge spaces elsewhere. There may be some circumstances when a Refuge has to say they cannot offer a space to someone.

If a Refuge space is not available the Housing Solutions Service may have a duty to offer our own emergency temporary accommodation whilst we look into your situation in more detail, however this is not always the case. Where we do provide accommodation we will want to encourage you to work with support agencies and we would be concerned not to offer emergency accommodation in areas where you may be at risk.

If we are to assist you with securing permanent accommodation we would want to work with you and any other agencies involved finding somewhere to live where you would be as safe as possible from any further risk. It may well be that moving to a different area is the most suitable way to do this, so that a perpetrator or people known to them would not be likely to find out where you have moved to. We, and other agencies, would try to work together to support you to cope with the changes that such a move may require.

Further guidance

Contact Housing Solutions Service

  • Tell us about your housing circumstances.

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After you've contacted us

We will contact you with an appointment for housing advice and an assessment of your needs.

Other ways to contact us

You can call into one of our customer service centres or telephone us:-

To allow enough time for us to discuss your housing options with you, please attend before 4.00pm. If you come to us after this time we will only be able to give you emergency housing advice.

  • Kirklees Council Housing Solutions Service,
  • Address Huddersfield Customer Service Centre, Civic Centre 3, Market Street, Huddersfield, HD1 2YZ
  • Address Dewsbury Customer Service Centre, Walsh Building, Town Hall Way, Dewsbury, WF12 8EQ
  • Phone 01484 221350
  • Out of hours emergency service (24 hours a day) Phone 01484 414933
  • Email
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