Expanding Services for Families Experiencing Domestic Violence

Expanding Services for Families Experiencing Domestic Violence

By Laura Hall, Program Director and Chasten Bugge, Program Supervisor

Domestic violence is a common factor for families experiencing homelessness. Our program recently expanded to include specific housing and case management services for families experiencing homelessness due to domestic violence. We have always done this work, of course, with about one third of our referrals being families who were fleeing or experiencing domestic violence. With that number of referrals, we realized that there was a need for more specific case management and resources. We secured a grant from the Continuum of Care (CoC) Program, through HUD, which allows us to better serve these families.

Families experiencing domestic violence have increased barriers like financial abuse (prevented from working or access to financial accounts, etc.), isolation from family, friends or resources or have specific safety needs. The grant allows us to have four full-time case managers (plus a case manager devoting half time to DV caseload) and a program supervisor who specializes in domestic violence so we can provide safety planning, counseling, legal fees and other resources, in addition to housing services.

Since October 1, 2022, there have been 42 families in the domestic violence rapid rehousing program, and we have housed 30 families.

The CoC grant has allowed us to also send case managers to specific training, host other domestic violence serving agencies to learn about us and what we do, and to build additional community relationships. We are members of the Safe Shelter Collaborative, a coalition of all domestic violence shelters in Tennessee, and we participate in the weekly “high risk intervention panel” call in Davidson County.

We are grateful for grant funding that allows us to make sure we have the specialized knowledge and resources to better serve these families who have experienced domestic violence.

Statistics:

• 1 in 3 families with children entering shelter reported domestic violence as their reason for homelessness in FY 2016

• More than half of crimes against persons in TN are DV related

• TN ranks 10th in the nation for the rate at which men kill women

• Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) respond to a DV call every 20 minutes

• 71% of all DV victims in TN identify as female

• 40% of TN women and 32.5% of TN men experience intimate partner violence, intimate partner rape or intimate partners stalking in their lifetime