I'm trying to find an old thread with my experience of refuge on it. Will look in a min. If it helps at all OP! when we went into refuge we shared a large house with tonnes of facilities with a whole mix of people including a farmer and her DCs, a solicitor as well as a few who were on benefits etc. Refuges these days are really of a good quality and a whole range of types of people use them. They're all just women like you, who needed to flee nasty arseholes. We all sort of bonded over our shared experiences. There were a few oddballs that passed through but we mostly didn't take much notice of them! It's not like is imagined it would be with loads of really rough scary people all packed into a tiny house with no space to be alone or to cook what I wanted when I wanted etc.
In both the ones I stayed in we had half a fridge and half a freezer each, fully equipped kitchens etc. we used to be in the kitchen on a Sunday with the radio on knocking out roast dinners. There was space for several people to cook at once, it was by no means any less than I'd had in my own home. There will be a full launderette on site which you can operate whenever you want. Bedrooms wee large enough for everyone to be in comfortably.
The living space we had was also big, modern, tv, DVD player and a few consoles. Several bathrooms with showers and baths. As soon as your savings dip low enough you will be entitled to benefits which in my experience fully covered the rent for refuge. I only had to pay a service charge of £15 a week.
They vary in terms of what facilities you get. We had a large 5 bedroom Victorian house which was great and had several different activities and a catered evening of crafts and stuff for the kids with really lovely dinner at a local children's centre weekly. I also stayed in a huge converted manor house with iron security gates, 11 bedrooms and tonnes of in house facilities ranging from a play room, a den for older DCs with games consoles and lava lamps, a softplay room for toddlers and an quiet room for meetings with solicitors, police etc.
It varies greatly but from what I can gather most refuges these days either provide on site facilities or run them at a local centre. They have social workers, DV officers, children's workers and support staff on site or closely working with the refuge, most come in regularly or by appointment. It's far easier to access this huge wealth if support. The support staff deal with the fallout - speak to the police to alert them you've fled DV and are in refuge so that if your partner tries to tell the police you are missing etc they won't pass any information on at all. They will pay your transport to the refuge, usually providing a taxi to take you and all your stuff.
I even spent Christmas in one, and to be quite honest it was just as lovely as a Christmas at home! The staff provided a huge tree and decorations plus a hamper full of Christmas food. We all received a small present from the staff as some of the residents couldn't afford to buy much for their DCs and everyone mucked in and had a laugh.
Refuge is what you make of it, but I actually miss it now some years later! There were some people we avoided but because the majority were lovely it didn't matter or you didn't notice iyswim? My daughter loved it despite being fairly quiet and young at the time.