What it is
The Whole Housing Approach (WHA) is a framework developed by Standing Together Against Domestic Abuse and partners, built on a simple recognition: survivors live in every tenure (social housing, private rented, owner-occupied) and reach safety through many routes. A system that only thinks "refuge" misses most of them.
The WHA brings the full range of housing options and initiatives into one joined-up local response: refuge and safe accommodation, sanctuary schemes, housing-led options like Housing First, flexible funding, tenancy sustainment, perpetrator management, and (critically) trained, accredited housing providers through the Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance (DAHA).
Why it matters
Housing is consistently one of the biggest barriers to leaving: and one of the biggest levers for recovery. When housing providers, DA services, and local authorities operate as one system rather than three referral routes, survivors stop falling through the gaps between them. Earlier identification by housing staff, fewer forced moves, more women keeping their homes and communities while the perpetrator is the one displaced: that is the promise of the approach when it is implemented whole.
A frontline perspective
HerPathHome's founder has worked within Whole Housing Approach delivery in frontline practice. The honest learning from that vantage point: the framework is right, and its implementation is uneven. The components that involve cultural change: housing officers trained to ask and respond, tenancy policies that don't punish survivors, genuine co-location between housing and DA services: are where the approach lives or dies. Where those exist, outcomes change visibly. Where the WHA is a strategy document on a shelf, women still get the old system with new branding.
That gap between framework and frontline is a recurring theme in our writing and, in time, our research.
Core resources
- DAHA. Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance (dahalliance.org.uk): WHA toolkits, accreditation for housing providers, and practice resources.
- Standing Together (standingtogether.org.uk): the originating partnership, evaluation reports, and pilot learning.
- Statutory guidance under the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, which embeds several WHA principles into local authority duties on safe accommodation.
Work with us
HerPathHome is building survivor-facing resources that complement professional practice: plain-language rights information your clients can use at 2am, written by someone who understands both sides of the duty desk. For partnerships, training conversations, or to signpost our resources to the women you support, get in touch.