Abuse charity appeals for help after losing home

Founder Jennifer McDermott says the charity's donations are in storage and they're now having to meet in public coffee shops

A domestic abuse charity is appealing for urgent help to find a new home after it lost its south London base.

The Cassandra Centre has provided in-person counselling, education and support to those impacted by domestic abuse since 2007.

The organisation was located above Lloyd's Bank in Norbury until its closure in May, and since then it has been forced to switch to virtual sessions and pay high rents for office space and storage for furniture and donations.

Croydon Council says it has provided the charity with a range of options and "will continue to support them".

“We had therapy rooms, we had meeting rooms, we had training rooms, we had a library," Ms McDermott said of their old space above this bank

Founder Jennifer McDermott set up The Cassandra Centre in 2007 after her daughter, Cassandra, was murdered by an ex-boyfriend.

She explained while she and her team are doing their best to help people in London, rising costs have made it harder to continue operating - and they have even had to hold meetings with clients in local coffee shops.

'It was a safe place'

Speaking about their previous base, she told the BBC: “We had therapy rooms, we had meeting rooms, we had training rooms, we had a library.

"The women actually called the space a 'home from home' because it was set up that way to accommodate them. It was a safe place.

“We’re talking about vulnerable women here and for them to come into a public space to tell their stories isn’t good.

"We’re travelling right across Croydon and other places just to meet them - to give them that respect and that safety.”

There are piles of furniture and children's toys stacked up in the storage unit

The charity is even having to pay £200 a month in storage costs to keep valuable donations - including clothes, books and hampers for clients - safe and dry.

“It’s been almost a year and basically [we're] on the streets," Ms McDermott added.

"I thought that somehow, with the council, something would come - but nothing happened.”

Team member Sophie Jones said: “Even though we don’t have a base, we don’t have a home, the referrals are still coming through thick and fast, daily.

“There’s nowhere we can afford to rent and we don’t get any core funding.”

It comes as the borough of Croydon has one of the highest levels of reported domestic violence offences in the whole of the capital - a situation unchanged since before the pandemic.

In 2019 Croydon saw 4,372 reported domestic abuse offences, which increased by 605 to 4,977 offences in 2023.

Although Croydon is a large and highly-populated borough, even when analysing the data per 100,000 of the population, the area is still the sixth highest borough for domestic abuse offences in London.

There has also been a rise in domestic abuse offences more widely in London - with offences in the capital increasing by 7,282 between 2019 and 2023, from 89,486 to 96,768.

'Limited property portfolio'

A Croydon Council spokesperson said since the charity had to leave its previous space it has "tried to help broker an opportunity for the charity to find more permanent accommodation, however the nature of the Cassandra Centre's work with domestic violence victims and the need for privacy for their clients makes it more difficult to find suitable options".

"The council has a limited property portfolio and receives significant interest from hundreds of charities and other voluntary organisations for space," they said.

The spokesperson continued by saying the council has also offered the charity a list of possible options including "free use of our interview and confidential space in the Family Justice Service for them to meet clients" and "some space at a discounted rate at a local library".

They added the council would "continue to support them in their search for suitable accommodation".

When recently announcing £15m in funding for domestic abuse groups, London mayor Sadiq Khan said: "Sadly, cases of domestic abuse continue to rise and we know the cost-of-living crisis is leaving many survivors with the dilemma of staying with perpetrators of abuse or facing financial uncertainty and hardship; and putting vital support services often operating on small budgets under real pressure."