Transitional Housing For Survivors Of Domestic And Sexual Violence - Obtaining Housing And Financial Stability

DECember 30, 2016

Transitional Housing for Survivors of Domestic

and Sexual Violence: A 2014-15 Snapshot

Chapter 10: Challenges and Approaches to Obtaining Housing and Financial Stability (Income / Education / Employment / Self-Determination)

Fred Berman, Principal Author

Submitted to:

Sharon Elliott, Program Manager

Office on Violence Against Women

United States Department of Justice

This project was supported by Grant No. 2012-TA-AX-K003 awarded by the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women.

Chapter 10: Challenges and Approaches to Obtaining Housing and Financial Stability

Table of Contents

Chapter 10: Challenges and Approaches to Obtaining Housing and Financial Stability 2

Acknowledgements 4

Note about the Use of Gendered Pronouns and Other Sensitive Terms 5

1. Executive Summary 6

2. Introduction and Overview 11

(a) Overview 11

(b) The Compounding Problem of Housing Instability 14

3. Accessing Safe, Affordable Housing 15

(a) Overview of Challenges and Resources 15

(b) VAWA Protections 16

(i) With Uncertain Income / Weak Credentials, Survivors May Pose More Risk than Landlords Accept 19

(ii) Increasing Disparity Between Rents and Employment Income 20

(iii) Additional Barriers (Mostly) Related to the Increasingly Expensive and Competitive Housing Market 22

(d) Provider Approaches to Helping (Prospective) Participants Access Housing 24

(e) Helpful Resources 27

(f) Provider Comments on Housing-Related Challenges 32

(g) Provider Comments on Approaches to Assisting Participants in Accessing Housing 38

4. Addressing Income / Education / Training / Employment 56

(a) Conceptual Framework - Goodman et al. on the Intersection of Poverty and IPV 56

(b) Overview: Survivors' Income and Employment-Related Needs and Challenges 59

(i) The Importance of Income and Employment 59

(ii) Barriers to Employment (and to Participation in Education/Training) 60

(iii) Challenging Logistics - Childcare and Transportation 62

(i) Balancing the Need for Income with the Desire to Strengthen Employability 63

(ii) Education and Training Options 64

(iii) Scholarships for Higher Education and Vocational Training 66

(iv) Employment-Related Assistance 67

(v) Assisting Survivors with Criminal Records 69

(vi) Supporting Survivors Returning to Work / Addressing Workplace Safety-Related Concerns 70

(vii) Safety Planning with the Survivor 71

(viii) Workplace Safety-Related Resources for Employers and Victim Advocates 72

(ix) Legal Resources to Address Employer/Workplace Discrimination against Victims of Violence 73

(d) Provider Comments on Challenges Accessing Education / Training / Employment 74

(e) Provider Comments on Helping Participants Access Education / Training / Employment 78

(f) Provider Comments about Childcare-Related Challenges 90

(g) Provider Comments about Transportation-Related Challenges 92

5. Supporting Survivors in Achieving Financial Stability, Self-Determination, and Agency 96

(a) Financial Abuse and Resources to Address It 96

(i) Overview 96

(ii) Income Taxes and Financial Abuse 98

(b) Accessing Mainstream Benefits and Related Assistance 99

(i) Mainstream Benefits: Part 1 - Mostly about Cash Benefits / Health Coverage 99

(ii) Mainstream Benefits: Part 2 - Other Sources of Assistance 102

(i) Overview 104

(ii) The Allstate Curriculum and Related Resources 105

(iii) Providing Individualized Information and Assistance to Participants / IDAs and Micro Lending 107

(iv) Other Life Skills 109

(d) Provider Comments Describing Challenges Accessing Mainstream Benefits 109

(e) Provider Comments Addressing Financial Management and Other Life Skills 111

6. Appendix A: Project Description and Methodology 120

(a) Project Description: Summary 120

(b) Project Description: Overall Approach 122

(i) Development and Implementation of the Interview Protocol 124

(ii) Processing of Interview Data 125

7. References 126

American Institutes for Research / National Center on Family Homelessness

Transitional Housing for Survivors of Domestic and Sexual Violence: A 2014-15 Snapshot

Chapter 1: Definition of "Success" and Performance Measurement - Page 5

Acknowledgements

This project would not have been possible without the valuable contributions of the dedicated provider staff who shared their experience and insights, and whose comments inform these chapters, nor would it have been possible without all of the research, advocacy, and creative energy of all of the practitioners whose publications and online resources we learned from and cited.

Special thanks also go to the following people and organizations for their help:

· The Office on Violence Against Women for their funding support, and our project officer, Sharon Elliott, in particular, for her ongoing encouragement and support as this project evolved, and for her dedicated commitment to the life-changing work that the OVW's transitional housing grants make possible;

· Ronit Barkai (Transition House), Dr. Lisa Goodman (Boston College), and Leslie Payne (Care Lodge) for their contributions as members of the Project Advisory Team, including feedback that informed the development of the interview protocols, and insightful observations shared over the course of the dozen-plus team meetings during which we reviewed and analyzed topical compilations of provider comments;

· Dr. Cris Sullivan (Michigan State University) and Anna Melbin (Full Frame Initiative) for their extremely helpful reviews and comments on initial drafts of the report chapters;

· Barbara Broman (AIR) for her ongoing supervisory support;

· Charis Yousefian (AIR) for her extensive help with the coding, excerpting, and analysis of interview data; the preparation of summaries from the many meetings with our Project Advisory Team; and her attention to detail in reviewing citations and in compiling and periodically updating the reference lists;

· Kathleen Guarino (AIR / National Center on Family Homelessness) for her initial draft of the chapter on trauma-specific and trauma-informed care, her generously shared expertise, and her help with periodic problem-solving;

· My former colleagues at the National Center on Family Homelessness, in the early days of our affiliation with AIR -- Dr. Carmela DeCandia, Rose Clervil, Corey Beach, and Maureen Hayes -- for their help conceptualizing the interview protocol, and scheduling and conducting some of the early interviews with transitional housing providers; and

· Melissa Scardaville (AIR) for contributing her time to review of the penultimate drafts of the chapters.

Any and all errors and omissions are the fault of the author, Fred Berman.

For more information about this report and related work, please address questions or comments to:

American Institutes for Research / National Center on Family Homelessness

Transitional Housing for Survivors of Domestic and Sexual Violence: A 2014-15 Snapshot

Chapter 1: Definition of "Success" and Performance Measurement - Page 5

Fred Berman

Senior Associate

American Institutes for Research

The National Center on Family Homelessness

201 Jones Rd. -- Suite #1

Waltham, MA 02451

Telephone: 781-373-7065

Email:

Barbara Broman

Managing Director

American Institutes for Research

1000 Thomas Jefferson St., NW

Washington, DC 20007

Telephone: 202-403-5118

E-mail:

American Institutes for Research / National Center on Family Homelessness

Transitional Housing for Survivors of Domestic and Sexual Violence: A 2014-15 Snapshot

Chapter 1: Definition of "Success" and Performance Measurement - Page 5

American Institutes for Research / National Center on Family Homelessness

Transitional Housing for Survivors of Domestic and Sexual Violence: A 2014-15 Snapshot

Chapter 10: Challenges and Approaches to Obtaining Housing and Financial Stability - Page 131

Note about the Use of Gendered Pronouns and Other Sensitive Terms

For the sake of readability, this report follows the example of numerous publications -- for example, by the National Center on Domestic Violence, Trauma & Mental Health (NCDVTMH)[1] and the Missouri Coalition of Domestic and Sexual Violence[2] -- and uses feminine pronouns to refer to adult victims/survivors of domestic and sexual violence, and masculine pronouns to refer to the perpetrators of that violence. This report also uses feminine pronouns to refer to the provider staff of transitional housing programs that serve survivors. The use of those pronouns in no way suggests that the only victims are women, that the only perpetrators are men, or that the provider workforce is entirely female. Indeed, the victims and perpetrators of domestic and sexual violence can be male or female or transgender, as can the staff that support their recovery, and the shortcut herein taken is merely used to keep an already long document from becoming less readable.

Although the terms "victim" and "survivor" may both refer to a person who has experienced domestic or sexual violence, the term "survivor" is used more often in this document, to reflect the human potential for resilience. Once a victim/survivor is enrolled in a program, she is described as a "program participant" or just "participant." Participants may also be referred to as "survivors," as the context requires. Notwithstanding the importance of the duration of violence and the age of the victim, we use the terms "domestic violence" and "intimate partner violence" interchangeably, and consider "dating violence" to be subsumed under each.

Although provider comments sometimes refer to the perpetrator of domestic violence as the "abuser" or the "perpetrator," this report refers to that person as the "abusive (ex-)partner," in acknowledgement of their larger role in the survivor's life, as described by Jill Davies in her often-cited Advocacy Beyond Leaving (2009).

Finally, although the Office on Violence Against Women funds transitional housing programs to address the needs of not only domestic violence survivors, but also survivors of sexual assault, stalking, and/or dating violence, the preponderance of program services are geared to DV survivors, the large majority of TH program clients are survivors of domestic violence, and much of the literature and most of the provider quotes are framed as pertaining to domestic violence. Consequently, much of the narrative is framed in terms of addressing "domestic violence" or "domestic and sexual violence," rather than naming all the constituencies.

1. Executive Summary

As described in Chapter 9 ("Approach to Services: Providing Basic Support and Assistance"), the advocate/case manager[3] provides the glue that holds a transitional housing (TH) program together. She is typically the face of the program, the primary source of advocacy and support, and if participants wish such assistance, she is the go-to person for help exploring next-step options, planning for safety, applying for benefits, addressing barriers to housing and employment, looking for housing, accessing help to address unresolved health or mental health care needs, working on parenting challenges, finding legal assistance or help with immigration status, becoming connected in a new community, and much more. Chapter 9 focused on the basic advocacy and case management role, including safety planning, community integration, and follow-up after a survivor moves on from the TH program

This chapter focuses on the specific challenges and approaches to securing housing, addressing survivors' income and employment-related needs, identifying education and training opportunities, accessing childcare and transportation, repairing credit problems, addressing immigration and other legal issues, and supporting survivors in strengthening their financial management and other independent living skills. Because advocates / case managers often depend on community partners or other sources of expertise to support their work in all of these areas, the narrative sections of this chapter contain extensive links to websites and publications with information and resources that staff can leverage to support participants.

Section 2 frames the chapter, and makes key points that put the narrative and provider comments in context:

(1) Survivors are under a lot of stress. While they and their children are still recovering from the debilitating effects of the trauma and violence they experienced in the abusive relationship, and from any residual trauma dating back to earlier experiences of domestic or sexual violence; while they are wrestling with the stresses inherent in fleeing and leaving behind a home and support network and facing an uncertain future, they are under time-limit pressure to make important choices about where and how they want to live and how they will support themselves, and to make sufficient progress in overcoming obstacles to realizing that future, or else face extended homelessness or a return to the situation they fled.

· If a survivor is in a traditional TH program (in temporary provider-owned or provider-leased housing) and hopes to be able to move to her own safe, decent, affordable apartment, she is under pressure to find and lease that apartment and to obtain employment (or a housing subsidy) that will enable her to cover her expenses -- before her time in the TH program runs out. If she has problematic tenancy credentials -- poor credit, outstanding debts or arrearages, a history of evictions -- she will need to somehow address those barriers, as well, before most landlords will offer her an apartment.

· If the survivor is in a transition-in-place program in which participants must be the leaseholder (as in all HUD "Rapid Rehousing" grant-funded programs and most OVW grant-funded transition-in-place programs), she is under similar pressure to find an apartment while she and her family stay in a time-limited DV shelter or other interim living situation. Making her housing search a little easier is her ability to assure the landlord that the rent will be paid (at least until the rental assistance ends, if not longer). Once she moves into her transition-in-place apartment, she is under pressure to obtain a job that will allow her to financially sustain that apartment -- before her rental assistance runs out.

· If the survivor is enrolled in one of the smaller number of OVW grant-funded transition-in-place programs in which the provider can lease the apartment selected by the survivor until the survivor has the income and the tenancy credentials to take over the lease, she "only" has to worry about developing the necessary income and taking care of any blemishes in her tenancy credentials that would keep a landlord from putting her on the lease.

As discussed in the narrative, these pressures have only intensified in recent years as access to affordable housing has tightened, and as the disparity between wages and housing costs (and other costs of living) has grown wider.

(2) Particularly in jointly OVW/HUD-funded programs facing sharper constraints on the duration of services (also referred to as "length-of-stay"), survivors don't have the "luxury" of addressing their challenges one-at-a-time, because barriers in one area affect the ability to make progress in other areas. For example, a survivor needs an income in order to resolve outstanding debts and credit problems that stand in the way of housing, and her income determines what she can afford to pay for housing. Success in finding and sustaining the employment that can help her address credit and debt issues and cover her housing costs may depend on overcoming barriers to child care or transportation, immigration status, or resolution of harassment and threats by her (ex-)partner.

(3) Providers are under increasing pressure to demonstrate program outcomes that may seem unattainable within the targeted timeframe, given the barriers that some survivors must overcome and the increasingly challenging housing and employment markets in which the survivors must succeed. As one provider stated,