Gabriela Sandoval Requena
Director of Policy and Communications
March 10, 2025

Thank you, NYC Council Public Housing Committee Chair Banks, Committee Members, and Council Central Staff for the opportunity to submit written testimony on the preliminary budget for Fiscal Year 2026.

 

ABOUT NEW DESTINY

Founded in 1994, New Destiny’s mission is to end the cycle of domestic violence and homelessness for low-income families and individuals by developing and connecting them to safe, permanent, affordable housing and services.

New Destiny is the only organization in New York City solely dedicated to the solution of permanent housing for survivors of domestic violence. We are the largest provider of supportive housing for survivors in New York and a leading advocate in the effort to increase housing resources for New Yorkers impacted by domestic violence.

We are also a co-convener of the Family Homelessness Coalition (FHC), a collective of mothers with lived experience of homelessness and organizations committed to tackling housing insecurity among families in our city. New Destiny is also a member of the Supportive Housing Network of New York and the Association for Neighborhood & Housing Development.

 

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND HOMELESSNESS

Domestic violence and homelessness are fundamentally connected. As New Destiny documented in its report: A Crisis Compounded: The Dual Crises of Domestic Violence and Homelessness, domestic violence is the leading cause of family homelessness in New York City, pushing more families into shelter than evictions.

Due to the lack of permanent housing options, which are compounded by the devastating long-lasting effects of abuse, survivors may linger in shelter for years. Less than 10% of survivors moved to a permanent home and more than half left Human Resources Administration domestic violence emergency shelter for another shelter, upon reaching the State-mandated limit of 180 days. One in four survivors and their children had to move to a Department of Homeless Services family shelter, where the average length of stay is over a year, according to the Fiscal Year 2025 Preliminary Mayor’s Management Report.

With no certainty of when they might be able to find a safe home, survivors are forced to make the impossible choice between entering the shelter system or remaining in abusive situations, putting their lives at risk. In 2023, 1 out of every 5 homicides were domestic violence homicides in New York City (73 of 386), where the victim was either an intimate partner or a family member.

 

FEDERAL FUNDING CUTS

The proposed federal budget cuts will be devastating for survivors. Specifically, the cuts to programs funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD.

Since 2018, New Destiny has received HUD funding through the New York City Continuum of Care (CoC) to provide housing navigation services to hundreds of survivors and, in many cases, also temporary rental assistance. But our program, and hundreds of others like it in New York City, are at risk of disappearing.

As of today, HUD is withholding over $3.57 billion in CoC funding nationwide, including nearly $174 million for New York City. This year, more than ever, we need our city leaders to step up and protect New Yorkers impacted by domestic violence by:

 

Expediting NYCHA emergency transfers for domestic violence survivors

Under the Emergency Transfer Program, NYCHA allows tenants who are escaping domestic abuse, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking, as well as other crime victims, to apply for an apartment transfer. The process is intended to protect at-risk public housing residents by providing them with confidential relocation quickly. Eligible tenants are placed on a waiting list and assigned a transfer priority status. The total number of residents approved for an emergency transfer dropped from 1,552 in Fiscal Year 2023 to 1,207 in Fiscal Year 2024. Since the City does not report the number of applications submitted, the drop in approved transfers does not necessarily indicate a decrease in demand.

At a City Council Committee on Public Housing hearing in March 2023, NYCHA testified that the agency had a total of 2,330 emergency transfers pending, of which 76%, or more than 1,770, were related to domestic violence. They reported that crime victims requesting emergency transfers must wait for a significant period of time for a new home. The agency has struggled to accommodate emergency transfers for years. According to a City Limits investigation, in July 2017, one of the 256 families on NYCHA’s emergency transfer waiting list had been waiting since March 2012 to move. The prolonged wait for a transfer forces survivors to choose between remaining in unsafe situations or entering the shelter system.

As Legal Services NYC’s eye-opening report: Trapped in Danger, exposed, NYCHA places emergency transfers in its lowest priority category, which results in domestic violence survivors waiting anywhere from one to three years, or more, for an emergency transfer. New York City must adhere to federal VAWA regulations and address the significant delays in NYCHA emergency transfers that put survivors’ lives in jeopardy. NYCHA must give emergency transfer requests a much higher priority. This is a budget neutral, administrative change.

Additionally, NYCHA must ensure timely completion of repairs of vacant units and assess alternative resources, such as Section 8, for pending transfers waiting over 12 months, who are willing to relocate outside of public housing.

Thank you for your leadership and the opportunity to submit written testimony.