One of the quickest and least controversial ways to reduce homelessness has now become clear: Eliminate as much domestic violence as possible.
That’s made plain in a new study from researchers at the University of California-San Francisco Medical Center which concluded that intimate partner violence contributes greatly to persons becoming unhoused – and that these victims of violence are far from universally female.
The new report from UCSF’s Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative says physical violence during the six months before becoming homeless was a major reason for almost one-tenth of all homelessness in California.
And yet, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s order that homeless encampments on state land be shut down forthwith never mentions domestic violence.
The new study found that 8 percent of the unhoused in the largest ever survey of California’s homeless experienced intimate partner violence, a more formal term for much domestic violence. That included 17 percent – almost one-fifth – of all women living on the streets or in homeless shelters.
This makes domestic violence a lesser cause of homelessness than escalating rents or mental illness of various types, but still a major contributor. The finding is based on in-depth interviews with more than 100 homeless persons who experienced domestic violence before leaving their former residences.
As might be expected, intimate partner violence does not occur in a vacuum. Most of those made homeless after such episodes are also poor, with median monthly income about $1,000, often too little for groceries, let alone rent.
Of those naming physical violence as a reason for leaving their prior homes, almost half told the UCSF researchers the violence was a large reason for leaving. In short, they would rather chance living in gutters, tents or temporary shelters than stay and get beaten. Fully 40 percent of them said the physical abuse was their main reason for leaving.
For these folks, about two-thirds of them women, leaving was a survival strategy; they believed their lives were threatened.
Before leaving their last previous “permanent” housing, about 20 percent had government rent subsidies.
Other barriers also drive many to the streets and keep them there. These include not knowing about specialized domestic violence programs, child care responsibilities, fears their intimate partner would find them if they got government help and pandemic-related problems including increased time at home with their predators. Male victims of intimate partner violence, many of them gay, indicated reluctance in seeking help to avoid becoming homeless because they feared discrimination and stigma.
But simply leaving home often can’t remove the threat of violence, it turns out.
“Many who experienced intimate partner violence in the six months prior to homelessness also experienced (it) during homelessness,” says the report, published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Interpersonal Violence.
Because the newly homeless can be tracked down by former housemates with relative ease, the report says, many described to researchers how they change locations frequently and constantly “remain vigilant of their surroundings.”
Their situations are especially perilous because fully 81 percent of the surveyed homeless persons fleeing domestic violence spend most nights completely unsheltered, not even in tents.
Many with these woes lack money to seek apartment rentals, especially in coastal counties where both rents and housing are higher than inland.
That’s why 73 percent of the UCSF sample believe a small monthly housing subsidy could help them a lot. Even more said a lump-sum payment that might cover first and last month’s rent would help even more. Almost all those surveyed (92 percent) said a housing voucher limiting their need to pay most rent would have kept them housed for at least two additional years.
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The days of endlessly waiting for unhoused individuals to agree to accept services are over
Instability while unhoused also contributes to extended homelessness, the research showed, because without easy access to domestic violence services and shelters, intimate partner violence can continue or worsen while people remain homeless.
The bottom line: Domestic violence causes and prolongs a healthy share of California’s homelessness. But the state’s healthcare system “does not provide substantial support” for people who become homeless due to violence.
In short, the more Californians can do to lower or prevent domestic violence, the less homelessness citizens will encounter and the better off those already homeless will be.
Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com.
