This November is...

Homelessness Awareness Month

Everyone needs a safe place to call home....

Domestic violence is a primary cause of homelessness for women and children. A staggering 92 percent of women who are homeless report having experienced severe physical and/or sexual assault at some point in their lives. Approximately 50 percent of all women who are homeless report that domestic violence was the immediate cause of their homelessness. Still other studies suggest that many women experiencing homelessness are survivors of domestic violence, even if it's not the cause of their homelessness. Domestic violence survivors are routinely met with discrimination when finding new housing; a lack of affordable housing and housing assistance further limits their options. 

In this newsletter, you'll find other resources on the intersecting issues of domestic violence and homelessness. 

HUD Expands Housing Protections for Survivors of Violence

HUD’s rule includes:

• Continuation of the core protections – The rule codifies the core protection across HUD’s covered programs ensuring survivors are not denied assistance as an applicant, or evicted or have assistance terminated due to having been a victim of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking, or for being affiliated with a victim
• Emergency transfers – One of the key elements of VAWA’s housing protections are emergency transfers which allows for survivors to move to another safe and available unit if they fear for their life and safety. VAWA required HUD to adopt a model emergency transfer plan for housing providers and to explain how housing providers must address their tenants’ requests for emergency transfers. HUD’s model emergency transfer plan:
  • allows a survivor to self-certify their need for an emergency transfer, ensuring documentation is not a barrier to protecting their immediate safety;
  • allows the survivor to determine what is a safe unit for purposes of the transfer, ensuring that the survivor has control over their own safety planning;
  • requires housing providers to allow for a resident to move immediately if there is another safe and available unit that does not require the survivor to undergo an application process as a new tenant, ensuring quicker access to safe housing;
  • requires housing providers to explain the efforts they will take when there is not a safe and available unit available for an emergency transfer and encourages housing provides to partner with victim services and advocates t and other housing providers to assist a survivor; and,
  • requires housing providers to document requests for emergency transfers, including the outcome of the request, and to report annually to HUD.
• Protections against the adverse effects of abuse – Domestic violence can often have negative economic and criminal consequences on a survivor. The perpetrator may take out credit cards in a survivor’s name, ruining their credit history, or causing damage to survivor’s property causing eviction and poor rental history. The perpetrator may force a survivor to participate in criminal activity or a survivor may be arrested as part of policies that require arresting of both parties in a domestic disturbance. The final rule ensures that covered housing providers do not deny tenancy or occupancy rights based solely on these adverse factors that are a direct result of being a survivor.
• Low-barrier certification process – The final rule makes it clear that under most circumstances, a survivor need only to self-certify in order to exercise their rights under VAWA, ensuring third party documentation does not cause a barrier in a survivor expressing their rights and receiving the protections needed to keep themselves safe.

Your Coalition in Action

DVAM 2016