Working Together to End Homelessness for Domestic and Sexual Violence Survivors and Their Families

The need for safe and affordable housing is one of the most vital and immediate concerns for survivors of violence and abuse. Black people, Indigenous people, and other person(s) of color are overrepresented in homeless populations due to structural racism, historical measures, network impoverishment, and other racial disparities across systems. 

View our first animation on The Intersection of Homelessness and Domestic Violence.

 

Welcome to Safe Housing Partnerships, the website for the Domestic Violence and Housing Technical Assistance Consortium! We hope you find useful resources and tools that advance your work at the critical intersection of domestic violence, sexual assault, homelessness, and housing. Please check back frequently, as we continue to add resources, tools, and best practices from the field.

Staff Picked Resources

Emergency Housing Vouchers: Guidance for Victim Service Providers

2021
Violence Free Minnesota
National Alliance for Safe Housing
National Network to End Domestic Violence

As part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which was enacted into law in March 2021, Congress appropriated $5 billion for Emergency Housing Vouchers (EHVs) intended to assist individuals and families who are homeless or facing housing instability, as well as individuals and families who are fleeing or attempting to flee domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, stalking, or human trafficking. This document provides: 

  • An overview of the allocation and distribution process for EHVs; and
  • Recommended steps that victim service providers (VSPs), including culturally specific victim service organizations, serving domestic, sexual assault, and human trafficking survivors, can take to advocate for gender and racially equitable survivor access to these new resources.

Reaching BIPOC Survivors with COVID-relief Flexible Funding in Harris County Texas

2022
Safe Housing Alliance
National Resource Center on Domestic Violence

This case study examines how the Harris County Domestic Violence Coordinating Council (HCDVCC) in Houston, Texas used a variety of COVID-19 relief funding sources to provide over three million dollars of flexible funding grants to survivors in their region. As the funding intermediary, HCDVCC centered the needs of BIPOC survivors by looking outside the mainstream victim service sector when selecting the fourteen flexible funding program grantees. This case study highlights HCDVCC’s strategy to get flexible funding to BIPOC survivors who were less likely to access COVID-19 relief funds and other resources from mainstream institutions or through channels outside their cultural community or natural support system, including survivors who were undocumented and those still living with the harm-doer. The capacity-building support required by some of the programs to successfully utilize these funds is outlined, as well as approaches the wider field can consider to minimize common funding barriers BIPOC organizations face to accessing flexible funding for the survivors they serve.

Popular Resource Categories

Survivors’ economic challenges can take many forms and can threaten safety and housing stability. Flexible funds can make a significant difference, and programs that are using them are seeing great results.

Once consisting primarily of shelter, responses to homelessness and housing instability are now many and varied. 

Federal laws and policies have a significant impact on survivors' access to housing, and address topics including housing discrimination, emergency transfers, public housing, homelessness prevention, and more. This page provides links to the Violence Against Women Act, McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, the HEARTH Act, and other relevant provisions in the law.