Online resource on links between housing and domestic and sexual violence

The US-based Domestic Violence and Housing Technical Assistance Consortium has launched a website about the links between domestic and sexual violence and safe, affordable housing.

The website, called Safe Housing Partnerships, provides information about the connections and tools for advocates working at this intersection.

Safe Housing Partnerships has strategies, resources, case studies, reports and statistics that providers and advocates can use to address the housing needs of victims of domestic and sexual violence. The website has four main sections that address understanding the intersections, building partnerships, employing key approaches as well as US national policies.

The US National Resource Center on Domestic Violence (NRCDV) and the US National Alliance for Safe Housing (NASH) partnered to develop the website. NRCDV and NASH are part of the Domestic Violence and Housing Technical Assistance Consortium along with other national US agencies.

Related news

Violence can be a major factor contributing to women's homelessness. Also, once homeless, women and their children can be at higher risk of experiencing violence. The UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women addressed women's right to safe housing in her June 2017 Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences (A/HRC/35/30) to 35th session of the Human Rights Council. The Special Rapporteur commented that:

"The Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard living, and on the right to non-discrimination of the Commission on Human Rights identified the relevance of the provision of shelters in the context of the right to adequate housing, and noted that domestic violence can greatly increase women’s vulnerability to homelessness, especially when there is a lack of protection by law enforcement officials, or by the legal system itself (see E/CN.4/2006/118, para. 33)."

The report highlighted a number of issues preventing women who are victims of violence from accessing safe housing. The Special Rapporteur highlighted that women can struggle to transition from a shelter to stable housing without employment, family support or other resources. Women are also more likely to return to a home with a violent perpetrator without access to stable and safe housing.

For more information on homelessness and violence

See the following reports and studies for information about homelessness and the links between violence and homelessness. Also see the Clearinghouse library under homelessness.

Aotearoa New Zealand

Forgotten women: A study of women and homelessness in Auckland, New Zealand (Kate Bukowski, 2009)

Finding safety: Provision of specialised domestic violence and refuge services for women who currently find it difficult to access mainstream services: disabled women, older women, sex workers and women with mental illness and/or drug and alcohol problems as a result of domestic violence (Debbie Hager, 2011)

Homelessness in New Zealand: Parliamentary Support Research Papers (Parliamentary Library, 2014)

Ending Homelessness in New Zealand: Final Report of the Cross-Party Inquiry on Homelessness (Cross-Party Inquiry into Homelessness, 2016)

Briefing to the incoming Minister responsible for Housing New Zealand by Housing New Zealand (2016, 2014)

International

Intimate partner violence and housing instability by J. Pavao, J. Alvarez, N. Baumrind, M. Induni, and R. Kimerling (2007)

Homelessness prevention for women and children who have experienced domestic and family violence: Innovations in policy and practice by Angela Spinney and Sarah Blandy (2011), AHURI Positioning Paper No. 140, Australian Housing and Urban Research Unit

Related media

Rental shortage in Hamilton is impacting on victims of family violence, Hamilton News, 14.07.2017

Housing shortage forces women back to abuse, Waikato Times, 13.07.2017