Finding a safe place to stay when fleeing an abusive relationship remains a nearly insurmountable challenge for many domestic violence survivors in Portland’s tight and unrelenting rental market.
As Street Roots reported in November, the lack of reasonably priced housing options and long wait times to get into domestic violence shelters means many victims must choose between facing the dangers of living on Portland’s streets or staying with their abuser.
FROM OUR ARCHIVES: A tough choice: Stay or be homeless
Since then, length of stays at local domestic violence shelters, which had already more than doubled since 2005 in most cases, “continue to grow longer,” said Annie Neal, director at Multnomah County Domestic Violence Coordination Office. During the last quarter of 2015, two local domestic violence shelters had client stays averaging 82 days or longer.
“This means, of course, that fewer people are able to access DV shelters for DV emergencies, because the shelters are already full,” Neal said.
Christina McGovney, shelter coordinator at Raphael House of Portland said the housing crisis continues to affect survivors.
“There are a lot more homeless shelter options, but even in shelter, you are still homeless,” she said, adding that clients are watching their temporary assistance grants and other benefits expire “left and right” because they can’t secure rental housing.
FROM OUR ARCHIVES: Housing protections for domestic violence survivors
For these reasons, Oregon Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, whose members include domestic violence shelters and other service providers for women in crisis across the state, has aligned itself with groups like the Oregon Housing Alliance and Welcome Home Coalition this legislative session.
Advocates for domestic violence victims said the passage of the Housing Relief Act,
or House Bill 4001, would help give survivors options beyond staying with their abuser or becoming homeless. The bill includes tenant protections and tools that cities can use to increase both emergency and affordable housing.
An additional $10 million in funding for the Emergency Housing Account and State Homelessness Assistance Program are also priorities for both the OCADSV and the Alliance to End Violence Against Women this session, as dollars will likely trickle down to domestic violence and sexual assault survivors and domestic violence shelters.
Every year the OCADSV surveys its members and allies, asking what they need most to do their jobs the best they can, said Niki Terzieff, the coalition’s lobbyist. It also asks people in abusive relationships what they most need to step out of victimhood and become survivors.
Every year, she said, the survey results show that in one way or anther, housing is a top priority across the spectrum.
Last session, advocates pushed for a bill that would have increased the dollar amount of Temporary Assistance for Domestic Violence Survivors, or TA-DVS. With the limit set at $1,200 over 90 days since 1996, it “isn’t keeping pace with reality,” Terzieff said.
The bill would have increased the TA-DVS to $2,000 but died in the Joint Ways and Means Committee last session with a $5 million price tag.
Terzieff said the assistance amount is “not enough to get somebody into an apartment; it’s not enough to actually help them with whatever it is that they need at that moment that they would access these funds for.”
In some cases, she said, vouchers are returned unused, which jeopardizes the federal funding that makes them possible in the first place.
With many survivors looking for housing, not only for themselves but for their children as well, the cost of securing an apartment and moving in is easily upward of $2,000.
But this session, with strong momentum built up around housing bills, advocates say it’s the best bet for helping domestic violence survivors.
“We’ve always had housing on the agenda,” Terzieff said, “but with the big push that’s happening, and an enthusiastic governor, we’ve decided to push this up to the top for 2016.”
Sen. Laurie Monnes Anderson (D-Gresham), who introduced the bill to increase TA-DVS last session, submitted a budget request in another attempt to increase the amount of assistance this session but isn’t optimistic about its acceptance.
“I’m still going to keep my request in with Ways and Means, but we gave such a huge amount of money to TANF last session,” she said. “They would need many millions of dollars for it to make a difference with our DV victims.”
She said the real need is housing, and that’s where advocates want to focus their efforts this session.
Terzieff said OCADSV is putting its efforts and resources specifically behind the bill that would lift the ban on inclusionary zoning.
Inclusionary zoning links the production of affordable housing to the production of market-rate housing. It allows local governments to require that new residential developments include a certain number of affordable units, but in 1999, efforts by Oregon Home Builders Association successfully persuaded the Legislature to ban it.
FROM OUR ARCHIVES: It's time for inclusionary housing (commentary)
“It’s not just about the low-income bracket. What we know about domestic violence,” Terzieff said, “is that it crosses economic lines. Things like inclusionary housing are also good for a teacher, a nurse or a police officer that might be a victim of violence and is trying to move his or her family into a safer environment.”