Nowhere to go: Housing Precarity and Domestic Violence

This project investigates how women exposed to domestic and intimate partner violence often also experience housing precarity – a condition characterised by temporary living arrangements, hidden homelessness, insecure tenure, and limited access to the regular housing market.

Despite the fact that both domestic violence and housing are key priorities in Norwegian welfare policy, there is limited integrated knowledge and few coordinated responses targeting individuals who find themselves at the intersection of these two areas. Housing is rarely addressed as part of survivors’ right to safety and recovery, and violence is seldom recognised as a structural factor in housing policy and planning.

Grounded in Norwegian policy and practice, and inspired by international research, the project explores:

• how housing precarity is understood and addressed in the Norwegian context
• how women facing intersecting challenges – including low income, migrant background, health issues or substance use – navigate violence, separation and housing pathways
• how (the lack of) structural coordination across sectors affects their ability to secure a safe and stable home.

The project builds on an intersectional framework, examining how gender, class, ethnicity, migration, health and care responsibilities interact to shape women’s vulnerability and opportunities.

Our methodological approach combines policy and document analysis, quantitative data and in-depth qualitative interviews with survivors of violence and frontline professionals across sectors.

The aim is to generate new knowledge on how housing functions as both a barrier and a pathway to safety – and to develop evidence-based recommendations for more coherent, gender-sensitive housing and violence prevention policies in Norway.