Imagine being a child who is sound asleep in your Los Angeles home and you wake to your mother screaming, “Get out of the house and call 911!”
You hear the cracking of glass and chaos all around you and you’re afraid there may be a fire in your house and flames will confront you. You turn to run out the front door and instead what you see is your father straddling your mother and assaulting her.
Your mother manages to break free from him and yells, “Run to the car!”
A domestic violence scenario that may look like this happens to 32 people in the U.S. every minute, a total of 16 million people per year, or an average of one in two women and one in four men in this country.
Yet if this scenario instead were about a family trying to escape the recent wildfires in southern California that has claimed at least 29 lives and destroyed thousands of homes in a 45-mile radius, there would likely be a community of neighbors and friends eager to help, asking what was needed, collecting and providing immediate needs of food, clothing and shelter.
For survivors of domestic violence, the response to the crisis looks very different.
As a life-long California resident who has lived through a house fire in 1984 and as someone who has spent the last 18 years working with domestic violence survivors, I have an innate empathy for survivors of both kinds of trauma. But my lived experiences have shown me that lawmakers and a vast majority of the general public do not.
In 2021, 1,690 women were murdered by an intimate partner, or an average of 34 women per day. Research shows that for those experiencing intimate partner violence, it takes seven attempts to leave before they successfully escape. The most dangerous time for them is when they leave, with 75% of domestic violence-related homicides occurring after separation.
If they do make it out alive, the first thing survivors need is shelter. But across California and the nation, if they or their loved ones don’t have the resources, they may be out of luck.
According to a recent internal and unpublished confidential intake screening of our clients, 80% of survivors of domestic violence that have sought shelter in San Francisco stated they became homeless within three years after leaving their abusive partner. There are four dedicated emergency shelters with an estimated total of fewer than 73 emergency beds for survivors of domestic abuse in the City and County of San Francisco.
Nationwide, data shows that in 2023, just 10.4% percent of all Emergency Shelter, Transitional Housing, and Safe Haven beds were allotted for domestic violence survivors.
Domestic violence affects every race, age, income, health, gender, and sexuality—just as wildfires or other natural disasters affect anyone and everyone in their paths.
My fear is as always, this new dire need for housing as a result of the Southern California fires will once again leave survivors of domestic violence struggling. And once again they may be unseen and left in the cold while begging to find safe housing options so that they do not have to return home to their abuser.
Addressing the need for emergency housing does not have to be an either-or scenario. Every American has a right to be housed and safe. Yet, when it is time to address acute, chronic, or transitional homelessness with policies, funding, community support and resources, it feels as if survivors of domestic violence are always last on the priorities list.
The recent national confusion caused by President Donald Trump’s sudden halting of federal funds, then a federal judge pausing the move, and finally the White House rescinding the halt altogether, certainly complicates reliance on assistance. Whether or not support for those enduring domestic violence, wildfires or homelessness is available and will be forthcoming is murky.
During the aftermath of California’s recent fire storm, Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order to fast-track temporary housing for the Los Angeles firestorm area.
As state and federal legislators begin to seek funding for people to rebuild their lives after this enormous tragedy, they must ask that these housing funds be designated for everyone including domestic violence survivors and their children. To be clear, domestic violence survivors and their children need temporary and permanent housing just as much as fire victims do.
Making a decision based on circumstance on who gets to live safely and who does not is inhumane. Everyone deserves to live safely.