Domestic and Sexual Violence Specific Approaches

This infographic depicts the elements and results of a longitudinal pilot study that tested whether DASH's Survivor Resiliency Fund represents a promising strategy to prevent homelessness for survivors of intimate partner violence.

This presentation discusses strategies for engaging Landlords through a rental assistance program, demonstrates how to encourage participants to establish working relationships with their landlords, and provides a basic overview of how domestic violence may impact the Tenant/Landlord relationship.

Objectives for this presentation are to: Explore systemic level strategies to help prevent people from becoming homeless: Discuss VAWA protections for survivors on a local and federal level; and discuss homelessness prevention and practical strategies that can be used by advocates to assist survivors with maintaining their housing.

This Manual is designed for advocates and attorneys assisting domestic violence survivors who are at risk of losing their housing or who need to improve the safety of their housing. Survivors often return to abusive partners because they cannot maintain safe and secure housing on their own. As a result, housing advocacy is a critical part of holistic services for domestic violence survivors. The purpose of this Manual is to provide background information and sample documents that can be used to advocate on behalf of survivors facing evictions, rental subsidy terminations, and other forms of housing instability.

Survivors who rent their homes, particularly low-income survivors living in federally subsidized housing, may be hesitant to leave their homes out of fear of losing access to affordable housing. Other survivors living in market‐rate housing may fear the financial penalties associated with ending a lease early. This article  discusses select protections that may be available to survivors who wish to leave their rental units immediately for safety.

While the immediate impact of sexual assault may include fear, injury, diminished quality of life and emotional distress, survivors can also incur long-term economic costs with life-long impacts. The costs and impacts of sexual assault can increase the likelihood of homelessness, unemployment and interrupted careers or education. This can create cyclical risk of re-victimization. This report examines barriers to safety and justice for SA survivors, and to specific populations in particular, and makes key recommendations about how to respond.

For sexual violence victims, safe and affordable housing is often further out of reach, due to the effects of trauma, economic insecurity, and lack of resources in the aftermath of sexual violence. The majority of sexual assaults take place in or near victims’ homes or the homes of victims’ friends, relative or neighbors. Safe and affordable housing can be a protective factor against sexual victimization. This paper provides suggestions for how advocates to prevent homelessness and increase housing resources for these survivors.

This paper describes how communities are increasingly using homelessness prevention and rapid re-housing approaches to meet the needs of domestic violence survivors, helping survivors avoid homelessness altogether or quickly re-establish housing in the community to minimize their experience of homelessness. This allows providers to keep emergency shelter available for women and children who need immediate safety and the confidential location a domestic violence shelter provides.

Describes results of an evaluation of DASH's Survivor Resilience Fund, a low-barrier and trauma informed approach to homelessness prevention for survivors.

Discriminatory housing practices by landlords, local laws, and public housing agencies can contribute greatly to survivors' homelessness and can often force a survivor to choose between homelessness and staying with an abusive partner. Advocates and local programs have an important role to play in reducing barriers to housing and advocating for survivors to maintain or find affordable housing. This toolkit is designed to assist advocates in better understanding federal and state law housing protections, survivor rights, options for housing, and how to work with your local public housing authorities and landlords to better serve survivors.