Domestic violence, housing instability, and homelessness: A review of housing policies and program practices for meeting the needs of survivors

Conceptualizing Housing Instability: Experiences with Material and Psychological Instability Among Women Living with Partner Violence

“…Women who moved after leaving a partner who was abusive and who ended up living with friends/family or in social housing had lower incomes than those who did not move and those who moved to market housing at 6 months after leaving the partner ). Ponic's data supports the idea that leaving a partner who is abusive does not always mean that the survivor must leave the home (Baker et al, 2010;Breckenridge & Mulroney, 2007;Paterson, 2009) and highlights the need for expanded options to support the preferences of women in abusive relationships who want to safely stay in the home.…”

“…Not all women who leave end up moving (Breckenridge & Mulroney, 2007;Ponic et al, 2011), and we were not able to capture their experiences here. Yet, previous research indicates that the themes we identified are also relevant to women who use market housing after leaving a violent relationship (Anderson & Saunders, 2003;Baker et al, 2009Baker et al, , 2010Campbell et al, 1998;Galano et al, 2013;Jategaonkar & Ponic, 2011). Jategaonkar and Ponic (2011) explored very similar themes-housing, violence health-in interviews with women in British Columbia who had left abusive relationships.…”

“…That is, women defined housing (in)stability through the causes and consequences of violence-isolation, unemployment, economic strain, loss of control over one's life, lack of safety, loss of identity, and psychological distress to name a few. Their perceptions and experiences of both the psychological and material aspects of housing during the three periods (summarized in Figure 1) guide our investigation on housing instability among this sample as do the expanded notions of material and psychological housing concerns described by Dupuis, Dunn and others (Baker et al, 2010;Dunn, 2002;Pavao et al, 2007;Shaw, 2004). We seek to contribute to the literature on unstable housing, in particular for women experiencing IPV, by going beyond documenting correlations between IPV and unstable housing to capture the processes by violence leads directly and indirectly to material and, in particular, psychological housing instability.…”

“…Employment troubles, including low wages; underemployment; inability to get a job that pays at or above a living wage due to poor employment history resulting from partner violence; inadequate resources that limit one's ability to work, such as inability to afford child care; and unreliable transportation are common problems among survivors of abuse (Baker et al, 2010;Glass et al, 2007;Goodman et al, 1999). The impact of these contextual circumstances on material and psychological housing instability, is rarely studied leaving an incomplete picture of how and why IPV may contribute to drivers and correlates of insecure housing.…”

Prevalence of Intimate Partner Violence among Women Veterans who Utilize Veterans Health Administration Primary Care

“…Past-year IPV was associated with indicators of economic hardship, including lower levels of employment, receipt of public assistance, low income and past-year homelessness. Although we are not able to discern the temporal nature of these relationships, there is a substantial literature that suggests unemployment, 35 reliance on public assistance, 36 and homelessness [37][38][39] to be consequences of IPV. This set of findings suggests that policies to promote economic empowerment among women who experience IPV are relevant to meeting the needs of women Veterans.…”