The Intersection of Houselessness and Domestic Violence

November is Family Violence Prevention Month and we’re featuring the work ACWS is doing towards ending family violence.

At Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters, we often get questions about whether domestic violence shelters are at capacity because of homelessness. Some wonder if individuals who can’t afford housing are taking space from survivors in active danger. Here’s how we respond:

There are many complex factors that lead to someone becoming homeless. We know that women who experience domestic violence are more likely to experience housing instability than women who have not.

For instance, one of our rural shelter members helped a woman three years ago. She and her children found safety from her abusive husband at the shelter, and staff supported her to move into safer, more permanent housing. After a time of independence, she returned to living with her abuser (it takes many survivors 7-9 times before they get free). Eventually, she left again, fleeing this time to a friend’s couch. When she called the shelter a second time, the woman wasn’t in active danger, but her precarious housing situation could very easily have pushed her back into living with the abusive spouse. The shelter director said, “If we were keeping stats, would we have said she was coming to the shelter because she was a domestic violence survivor or because she was houseless? We would have had to say, ‘both’.”

Danger from violence is a spectrum, as is houselessness.

Domestic abuse puts individuals in danger of houselessness, and houselessness puts individuals in more danger of domestic abuse.

Research also tells us that people experiencing houselessness are at increased risk of experiencing violence and abuse, assault, and sexual exploitation. This can contribute to a rise in trauma and complexity and can mean that often survivors will choose to stay with an abusive partner or stay in dangerous or unhealthy relationships to avoid houselessness or staying in a shelter.

Accessing shelter supports is an incredibly difficult step to take for many. We know that women with children are at higher risk of living in substandard housing. In fact, they report being scared to access shelters out of fear of intervention from child protection authorities. From our perspective, the women who do access domestic violence shelters with their children have to be overcoming significant fear to seek safety in a shelter. We honour them for their bravery.

While there is some research on where these two issues—domestic violence and houselessness—intersect, there is a lot we don’t know!  For instance, women’s experiences with houselessness, mental health, and substance use are often different than for men so a women-centred and trauma-informed approach can be a critical aspect of providing appropriate care and support. This is something ACWS’s member shelters are skilled at providing. Here at ACWS, we would love to work with funders to begin exploring the intersection of this issue because the two issues are intimately connected.

But what we have learned over the last 40 years is that women become homeless because of their abuse, and the women who are homeless are more likely to be abused. The bottom line is that their well being, and indeed their lives, are in danger.

References:

Cooper, J., Walsh, C. A., & Smith, P. (2009). A Part of the Community: Conceptualizing Shelter Design for Young, Pregnant, Homeless Women. Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering, 11(2), 122–133. https://jarm.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/jarm/article/view/23783

FEANTSA. (2022). Guide for developing effective gender-responsive support and solutions for women experiencing homelessness. FEANTSA. https://www.feantsa.org/public/user/Resources/resources/Guide%20supporting%20and%20solutions%20for%20women.pdf

Gaetz, S., Donaldson, J., Richter, T., & Gulliver, T. (2013). The State of Homelessness in Canada 2013. Canadian Homelessness Research Network Press. https://yorkspace.library.yorku.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/7160cf41-ca49-433e-a639-711506d11122/content

Jones, M., & Smith, T. (2011). Violence Against Aboriginal Women and Child Welfare Connections: Paper and Annotated Bibliography. Ontario Native Womens Association. https://web.archive.org/web/20200203162759/http://www.onwa.ca/upload/documents/violence-against-women-and-child-welfare-paper.pdf

Kirkby, C., & Mettler, K. (2016). Women First: An Analysis of a Trauma-Informed, Women-Centered, Harm Reduction Housing Model for Women with Complex Substance Use and Mental Health Issues. In Exploring Effective Systems Responses to Homelessness (pp. 114–130). The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness Press. https://www.homelesshub.ca/sites/default/files/attachments/Systems%20Book%20-%20Web.pdf

Richter, M. S., & Chaw-Kant, J. (2008). A case study: retrospective analysis of homeless women in a Canadian city. Women’s Health and Urban Life, 7(1), 7–19. https://hdl.handle.net/1807/10367

YWCA. (2006). Effective Practices in Sheltering Women Leaving Violence in Intimate Relationships. YWCA Canada. https://endvaw.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/ymca_shelter_study_tutty_2006.pdf

Zabkiewicz, D. M., Patterson, M., & Wright, A. (2014). A cross-sectional examination of the mental health of homeless mothers: does the relationship between mothering and mental health vary by duration of homelessness? BMJ Open, 4(12). https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2014-006174