I’m the trustee of a regional women’s shelter; we run a small building of 8 apartments which we offer to women and children as short-medium term refuges at no cost.
The people who arrive with us are experiencing trauma past breaking point (often abuse is normalised and needs to be significantly escalated until someone is willing to take flight), with symptoms of PTSD, depression, and often significant physical injuries. Children absorb this abuse in a similar manner, without any means to process the trauma.
Organisations like our face an extremely uncertain future; while the need for what we do remains, and probably increases, many women are unable to move or scared to due to the government advice on travel. This is against the backdrop of being unable to procure supplies; we provide our residents with everything from food to nappies, all donated or bought from cash donations.
I appreciate that living with a difficult roommate is a testing circumstance. But domestic abuse is truly a different level of horror.