Gabriela Sandoval Requena
Director of Policy and Communications
May 6, 2024
Thank you, Deputy Speaker Ayala, Chair Brannan, members of the City Council General Welfare and Finance Committees, and Council staff for holding this Fiscal Year 2025 executive budget hearing and for the opportunity to submit written testimony.
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. We build and manage supportive housing, and, through our innovative programs, we assist survivors in finding permanent housing and remaining stably housed.
New Destiny is the only organization in New York City solely dedicated to the solution of permanent housing for survivors and a leading advocate in the effort to obtain the resources needed to house survivors. To learn more, please see our policy recommendations. New Destiny is also a co-convener of the Family Homelessness Coalition (FHC), a collective of mothers with lived experience of homelessness and organizations committed to tackling homelessness among families in our city, as well as members of the Supportive Housing Network of New York and the Association for Neighborhood & Housing Development.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND HOMELESSNESS
While only about half of all domestic violence instances are reported,[i] the NYPD still filed1 domestic violence incident report every 2 minutes in 2022.[ii] Access to safe and affordable housing is one of survivors’ biggest, most urgent concerns and it often determines whether they leave their abuser. Between 2021 and 2022, homicides triggered by domestic violence increased nearly 30%, even as murders went down by 11% in the five boroughs during that same period. [iii] Access to safe and affordable housing is one of survivors’ biggest, most urgent concerns and it often determines whether they leave their abuser and stay alive.
Domestic violence continues to be a main cause of homelessness in New York City. More than 1 in 5 families with children who entered the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) shelter system identified domestic violence as the reason for their homelessness in Fiscal Year (FY) 2023.[iv][v] Additionally, 10,842 survivors sought refuge in the separate Human Resources Administration (HRA) domestic violence shelter system in calendar year 2023, 96% of whom were families with kids. [vi]
Once in domestic violence emergency shelter, survivors are 5 times more likely to move to DHS or another shelter than to a permanent home upon reaching the state-mandated six-month limit.[vii] Moving to DHS means that survivors lose the anonymity and specialized services of the domestic violence shelter system. Moreover, their time spent in domestic violence shelter does not count toward time in shelter in the DHS system, a marker used to prioritize households for housing. In 2023, more than 1 in 2 survivors left shelter for shelter and only 9% were able to secure permanent housing. Hundreds of other survivors were reported as making their own arrangements, unknown, or other. With a vacancy rate of only 1.4% in New York City,[viii] it is very likely that many of them left shelter to return to their abuser. According to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, survivors go back to their abusive partners an average of seven times before they leave for good.[ix]
Survivors sleeping in shelter make up only a fraction of survivors without a safe home to go. The New York City domestic violence hotline received 92,410 calls in 2022,[x] and in 2023 more than 16,000 survivors made nearly 50,000 visits to the city’s Family Justice Centers.[xi] While anyone can be affected by domestic violence, women of color, in particular Black and Hispanic, are disproportionally impacted. In 2022, 97% of head of households in HRA domestic violence shelter identified as female, 60% were Black, and 33% were Hispanic. Between 2010 and 2022, Black New Yorkers were 2.4 times more likely than members of other racial or ethnic groups to be victims of domestic violence homicide.[xii]
Most survivors need housing assistance because they cannot access whatever household resources existed. More than 94% of survivors of intimate partner violence experience financial abuse and isolation [xiii] and over half are victims of nonconsensual, credit-related transactions.[xiv] As a result, survivors often have poor credit scores and rental history, or may have lost their rental subsidy due to violations committed by the abuser. The shortage of affordable housing only heightens the barriers for survivors as they strive to regain stability. In 2023, the net rental vacancy rate of homes renting under $2,400 fell below 1%.[xv] Challenges are even greater for survivors from marginalized communities, survivors with a disability, and non-citizens survivors due to systemic discrimination and lack of equitable access to resources.[xvi]
RECOMMENDATIONS
Address staffing shortages in DSS and restore the 2.5% budget reduction implemented in the November 2024 Budget Modification, which hinder survivors’ ability to secure safe housing and put their lives and the lives of their children in jeopardy. The Department of Social Services (DSS), which includes DHS and HRA, administers CityFHEPS and HRA manages state FHEPS. Applicants for both housing subsidies must be on cash assistance if eligible, which is also overseen by HRA. Since 2022, when Mayor Adams took office, cash assistance application timeliness rate plummeted from 82.3% to 28.8% in 2023. The 2024 Preliminary Mayor’s Management Report shows that only 14% of cash assistance applications are processed within the required 30 days.
Limited capacity in the agency has delayed check processing times, slowed moves from shelter to permanent housing, and impacted the success of rental assistance programs. We urge the administration to ensure that DSS receives the resources and support necessary to rapidly fill vacancies.
Fund the Housing Stability program at $6 million dollars. Last year New York City took a major step in homelessness prevention by enacting Intro 153-A, which created a housing stability program for domestic and gender-based violence survivors. The program is designed to provide low-barrier grants to survivors, regardless of their immigration status, and connect them to supportive services, with the goal of helping them maintain housing. New Destiny witnesses the beneficial impact of microgrants every day. Our rapid re-housing program, HousingLink, receives small federal service funding that can be used to cover most emergency needs, such as utility arrears, moving costs, and healthcare. Similarly, during Covid, a privately funded microgrant pilot, overseen by the Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence and administered by Sanctuary for Families, further demonstrated that flexible funding can significantly improve survivors’ financial situation, help them remain housed, and foster financial stability.[xvii] The pilot illustrated the high demand for low-barrier financial support among survivors of domestic violence in New York City. The $500,000 for the pilot was quickly depleted and forced the program to cease receiving applications in less than 2 months.
For some survivors, an immediate, but otherwise manageable, financial or health crisis can quickly snowball into a catastrophe causing homelessness. Flexible funding is a cost-saving solution that can help survivors remain safe, stably housed, and out of the shelter system. If funded at $6 million in the FY 2025 budget, the city will ensure that the program is a life-saver for thousands of survivors, especially for non-citizen New Yorkers, and that it helps bridge the gap for existing federally funded initiatives that do not cover essential items, like furniture or groceries.
Improve the city-funded supportive housing program, NYC 15/15. Increase overall access to supportive housing by building more, and relying less on an already crowded housing market, to house New York’s most vulnerable residents. New Destiny supports the Supportive Housing Network of New York’s recommendations to improve NYC 15/15, especially the ask to develop additional congregate units above the original 7,500 allocation.
NYC 15/15 is in its eighth year and falling below its target. The city has only awarded 17% of scattered site allocation, whereas 80% of congregate units have been awarded. Now that Mayor Adams announced that domestic violence will be eligible for NYC 15/15 supportive housing, it is critical that the administration increases funding for the program to develop additional congregate supportive housing.
New Destiny thanks the Council for their leadership in calling for $6 million to better meet the needs of survivors through the microgrant programs and $19.6 million for NYC 15/15 in their 2025 Preliminary Budget Response.
We are also grateful to the Council for their Domestic Violence Empowerment (DoVE) initiative discretionary funding support in past years and respectfully requests that funding is renewed in FY 2025. Council Discretionary Funding enables New Destiny to cover operational costs and continue providing paramount services to families and individuals who have gone through the double trauma of homelessness and abuse.
[i] Morgan, R. & Truman, J. (2020). Criminal Victimization, 2019. U.S. Department of Justice. Retrieved from https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/cv19.pdf
[ii] NYC Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence. (2022 October 2). New York City Announces its Annual Domestic Violence Awareness Month Campaign. https://www.nyc.gov/assets/ocdv/downloads/pdf/DVAM-Press-Release-2023-10-02.pdf
[iii] New York City Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence. (2024). 2023 New York City Domestic Violence Fatality Review Committee Annual Report. Retrieved from: https://www.nyc.gov/assets/ocdv/downloads/pdf/2023-Annual-FRC-Report.pdf
[iv] Silkowski, A. (2019). Housing Survivors: How New York City Can Increase Housing Stability for Survivors of Domestic Violence. New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer. Retrieved from https://comptroller.nyc.gov/wp-content/uploads/documents/Housing_Survivors_102119.pdf
[v] New York City Department of Social Services. (2023). Reasons for Eligibility for Families with Children for Department of Homeless Services Shelter (Asylum seekers was the largest category, accounting for 32%, while evictions, formal and informal, accounted for 11%).
[vi] New York City Department of Social Services. (2023). 2022 Annual Report on Exits from NYC Domestic Violence Shelters.
[vii] Ibid.
[viii] New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development. (2024). 2023 New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey Selected Initial Findings. Retrieved from https://www.nyc.gov/assets/hpd/downloads/pdfs/about/2023-nychvs-selected-initial-findings.pdf
[ix] National Domestic Violence Hotline. Supportive Someone Who Keeps Returning to an Abusive Relationship. Retrieved from: https://www.thehotline.org/resources/supporting-someone-who-keeps-returning-to-an-abusive-relationship/
[x] New York State Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence. (2023). New York State domestic violence dashboard 2022. Retrieved from https://opdv.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2024/01/nys-gender-based-violence-dashboard-2022.pdf
[xi] New York City Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence. (2024). 2023 Annual Report on Domestic Violence Initiatives, Indicators and Factors. Retrieved from https://www.nyc.gov/assets/ocdv/downloads/pdf/Local-Law-38-2023-Annual-Report.pdf
[xii] New York City Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence. (2024). 2023 New York City Domestic Violence Fatality Review Committee Annual Report. Retrieved from: https://www.nyc.gov/assets/ocdv/downloads/pdf/2023-Annual-FRC-Report.pdf
[xii] Postmus, J., Plummer S., Mcmahon, S., Murshid, N., & Kim, M. (2012). Understanding economic abuse in the lives of survivors. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 27(3), 411-430.
[xiv] Bhattacharya, A., Dorosh-Walter, B., Reid, B., Sussman, E., Kourousias, L., Garcia Bigelow, M., Menna, M., Correa, M., Cameo., Young., Wee, S., & Inzunza, T. (2022). Reinvesting in Economic Justice, Equity, and Solidarity for Survivors in New York City. Retrieved from https://nycsurvivorej.mailchimpsites.com/
[xv] New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development. (2024). 2023 New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey Selected Initial Findings. Retrieved from https://www.nyc.gov/assets/hpd/downloads/pdfs/about/2023-nychvs-selected-initial-findings.pdf
[xvi] Kulkarni, S., & Hill, E. (2020). Understanding the Cycle of Housing Insecurity for Marginalized Survivors of Domestic and Sexual Violence. Retrieved from https://safehousingpartnerships.org/sites/default/files/2020-10/CoordinatedEntryPapersCycleofHousingInsecurity.pdf
[xi] Holmes, K. (2021). Evaluation Summary Report: Emergency Financial Relief Microgrants Program for Survivors of Domestic and Gender-Based Violence. Retrieved from https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/ocdv/downloads/pdf/Emergency-Financial-Relief-Microgrants-Program-Evaluation-Summary-Report.pdf