A safe haven in a time of crisis

The relationship between holiday rentals platform, Airbnb and Safe Ireland, the national development and co-ordination body working to eradicate domestic violence and coercive control, was born during Covid-19 when the deeply destructive nature of violence in the home was acknowledged as a priority issue.

“It was recognised instantly as a large-scale social problem, not reducible to poor personal choice,” explains Mary McDermott, Safe Ireland’s chief executive. “People reacted openly and many simply wanted to know how they could help and what they could do. Even people in healthy relationships, locked down with beloved partners and children, found it incredibly difficult. That created real empathy for those who have to live in toxic relationships all of the time.”

Safe Ireland members range from Lifeline Inishowen in Donegal to West Cork Women Against Violence, and from Aoibhneas Domestic Abuse Support in Dublin to Domestic Violence Response in Galway, as well as the national helpline and referral service, Women’s Aid, in Dublin.

In the midst of this crisis, Airbnb reached out to Safe Ireland to see if they could help support the NGO’s increasingly important work. The initial support from Airbnb provided immediately accessible emergency hotel accommodation to women at risk of domestic violence. In total it funded 4,500 emergency hotel bed and board nights in family rooms. “The cooperation of hotel managers and staff, and the dignity and care provided by them to victims has been both moving and effective,” McDermott says.

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While the scheme, also known as Project Ruby, ended earlier this year, this hotel emergency accommodation model enabled Safe Ireland to explore new options for emergency accommodation and they are working positively with the Government to see how this can be integrated into the full range of crisis and safe accommodation needed for victims and survivors of domestic violence.

Following this project, Airbnb extended its support with a generous donation of €350,000, which enabled Safe Ireland to launch its Survivor Fund.

“The Survivor Fund allowed all member services to provide flexible funding to women for immediate and practical support, for example, food or nappies, tyres for their car or phone credit,” says McDermott.

Safe at Home

Airbnb has now provided a further donation to Safe Ireland of €250,000, which Safe Ireland intends to fund a third initiative, the Safe@Home Scheme. This pilot scheme will explore ways to enable women to stay or return to their own home safely.

This new scheme will identify the best ways to ensure safety at home including developing successful local inter-agency and frontline service support, including security experts, Gardai, local domestic violence services and other relevant parties. Each case will be treated independently and security measures such as the installation of additional locks, reinforced glass and video camera monitoring, will be tailored to the home in question, helping to make the family feel more secure. Similar schemes have been operating successfully in the UK for decades.

Each case will be treated independently and security measures such as the installation of additional locks, reinforced glass and video camera monitoring, will be tailored to the home in question

“We will use Airbnb’s funding to test the scheme, create a model that is designed to be scaled-up, and again work to expand its successful elements. Once the pilot is complete, we will have a model that any local authority can access,” says McDermott.

“It’s a privilege for us to be able to support the vital work of Safe Ireland to ensure that anyone seeking help has a safe space, no matter where they are in the country, so that they can take the necessary steps towards rebuilding their lives”, explains Amanda Cupples, general manager for northern Europe at Airbnb.

Understanding what domestic abuse is

Domestic violence or abuse is one form of coercive control, a crime in Ireland since 2019. It can take many different forms, but at its core, it is a way for an abuser to gain control over their victim. It can involve psychological, physical, emotional, economic, social, spiritual, and sexual abuse, as well as manipulation, exploitation and assault. The nature of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, as the name suggests, is deeply rooted in sexist attitudes that are still common today.

It can be seen in the most important areas of our lives: personal, family and socio-cultural. It affects people of all classes, abilities, ages, races, ethnicities, and religions. Domestic abuse and coercive control is a persistent and intentional pattern of behaviour by an abuser over a prolonged period of time which is designed to create fear and obedience. It may include coercion threats, stalking, intimidation, isolation, degradation, and control. It may include physical and/or sexual violence. Ultimately, it’s a widespread and costly social problem which can be changed.

Crises ahead

“In a post-pandemic, but crisis-driven world, these patterns of exploitation, entitlement and abuse will not go away, in fact they are ‘morphing’ into new forms of coercion through the use of technologies and indeed the weaponisation of legal mechanisms, for example,” McDermott says. “The pressures of depleting personal and social resources take their toll directly on people in coercively controlling relationships. They need social support to survive.”

There are many aspects of life used as tools of control, McDermott notes. Energy use, for example, can become a weapon. “It can be about telling a partner they can’t turn on the heating and even taking lightbulbs out of houses. And now, with energy usage controlled by smartphone apps, energy use can be controlled from outside the house. We expect the current crisis will create additional ways to control victims,” she points out.

“The latest pilot scheme with Airbnb will allow us to continue to stay flexible and responsive to the needs of frontline domestic violence services and the victims and survivors they work with every day.”

For more information and support please visit safeireland.ie