Domestic Violence Awareness Month: Housing Justice Means Safe Housing Access for Survivors

Survivors of domestic violence face many challenges, including the need for safe, decent, and affordable housing. Unfortunately, common survivor experiences – such as bad credit due to financial abuse and coercion, damage to the unit, or calls for police or emergency assistance – unfairly impact survivors’ abilities to obtain and remain in rental housing. Black women survivors navigate the intersections of race, sex, and socioeconomic status and their impacts on housing stability.  

Survivors should never have to choose between enduring violence and housing insecurity or even homelessness. All too often, however, survivors face that unthinkable choice. As Domestic Violence Awareness Month concludes, NLIHC is highlighting important work to advance survivor access to housing.

The National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV), an Opportunity Starts at Home steering committee member, works tirelessly to advance the needs of survivors. NNEDV was instrumental in securing the passage of the 2022 reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). VAWA 2022 builds upon and expands housing protections for survivors who live in federally assisted housing programs. VAWA now also affirms the right of individuals to call police or emergency services, even if they live in private housing. Advocates across the country work each day to make these protections real. Still, realizing the full promise of VAWA’s housing protections will require more coordination, partnership, and resources in the months and years to come.  

Yet, threats to federal funding are creating additional headwinds for survivors and the organizations that serve them. Funding delays, including FY2025 Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) funds, jeopardize service providers’ critical work. OVW funding provides resources for housing assistance, emergency shelter, and legal services, among other things. These funds help keep survivors safely housed. NNEDV is working to elevate the urgent need to fully release these funds, as well as the urgent need to retain the Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women as an independent office, as statutorily required under VAWA.

NLIHC also acknowledges the work by state and local advocates to expand state-level housing protections for survivors. For instance, just this year, Rhode Island passed the Survivor Early Lease Termination Act, a priority effort by the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence.  State and local protections, such as ensuring survivors can change their locks or break their lease for safety, are essential.

As October ends, we can reflect on the milestones achieved on behalf of survivors, the hurdles ahead, and how we can work together to ensure all survivors have a safe place to call home.

Learn more about NNEDV here.

See the OSAH fact sheet, “Domestic Violence Advocates are Housing Advocates,” here.