Yesterday, the White House hosted an Event to End Violence Against Women, and highlighted the Obama Administration's unprecedented coordination and cooperation across the entire government to protect victims of domestic and sexual violence and enable survivors to break the cycle of abuse.

Helping victims regain housing and financial independence is crucial to achieving this goal.  The President said yesterday:

"We're helping the victims of violence to overcome the financial barriers they often face when getting back on their feet... We're going to be taking steps to connect survivors with jobs; to help them save; to make it easier to rebuild their credit; and to make sure no one has to choose between a violent home and no home at all.  Secretary Donovan at the Department of Housing and Urban Development is releasing new rules today to prevent the victims of domestic violence from being evicted or denied assisted housing because a crime was committed against them.  That's not right.  And we're going to put a stop to it."

Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness acknowledges domestic violence as an avenue to homelessness that must be closed and calls for implementation of the new Department of Housing and Urban Development rules that Secretary Shaun Donovan released yesterday:

"Domestic violence creates vulnerability to homelessness for women and children with limited economic resources. Among mothers with children experiencing homelessness, more than 80 percent had previously experienced domestic violence.  Domestic violence often includes exertion of financial control, leaving victims with poor credit and few resources.  Finding safe, affordable housing is one of the greatest obstacles that women who leave abusive partners face.

Eliminating discrimination against individuals based on their status as victims of domestic violence is yet another crucial strategy in ending homelessness. The landmark housing provisions of the Violence Against Women Act of 2005 (VAWA) provide protections for victims of domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking from housing discrimination and access to the criminal justice system while maintaining their housing. VAWA allows public housing authorities to give housing priority to victims of domestic violence when their safety dictates and prohibits them from denying housing or evicting a tenant based solely on their status as a victim of domestic violence. Consistent and effective implementation of these provisions may help save lives and prevent homelessness."

- FACT SHEET: Obama Administration Highlights Unprecedented Coordination across Federal Government to Combat Violence Against Women

Solutions and Local Best Practices to Preventing and Ending Homelessness for Victims of Domestic Violence

The good news is there are solutions. Opening Doors includes strategies that promote research on the role housing stability plays in improving safety and other outcomes for victims of domestic violence. It calls for permanent supportive housing and service-enriched housing to improve coordinated service delivery for those who need it. The federal plan also includes a strategy to make information more readily available on trauma-sensitive and trauma-informed services.

Catholic Charities' Crescent House in New Orleans and the Kentucky Domestic Violence Association are two vital allies working to address the intersection of domestic violence and homelessness.  These local programs exhibit innovation and commitment in the fight against both homelessness and domestic violence. Their use of best practices has resulted in positive outcomes for hundreds of domestic violence survivors who were formerly or are now experiencing homelessness.

Individual Development Accounts in Kentucky Help End Homelessness for Victims of Domestic Violence

When people flee domestic violence, they often arrive at the door of a service provider with nothing, including savings or credit.  Perpetrators of domestic violence frequently control access to household finances to make it hard for victims to leave.  Utilities and bank accounts are often in the abusers' names, not the victims', or abusers may intentionally destroy victims' credit.  An innovative response in Kentucky is addressing that problem by providing Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) and microloans that not only build credit, but also help victims start new lives.

Through grants from the Allstate Foundation, the Kentucky Housing Corporation, the U.S. Assets for Independence Program, and other funders, the Kentucky Domestic Violence Association is able to extend IDAs, credit score improvement, and hope to participants in its Economic Justice Project. Microloan recipients begin by depositing money into IDAs for at least 6 months. Those accounts serve as collateral for microloans (between $200 and $800), which cannot surpass the initial amount deposited by the participant. Loan repayments are then reported to credit bureaus and serve to increase credit scores, establishing credit as a valuable asset on the path from homelessness to economic self-sufficiency.

- Learn more about the Economic Justice Project

Rebuilding Lives 5 Years after Katrina: Catholic Charities Partners with Public Housing Authority to Serve Homeless Victims of Domestic Violence in New Orleans

Hurricane Katrina destroyed over 70 percent of the affordable housing stock in New Orleans, and it also destroyed two of the three domestic violence shelters run by Crescent House, part of Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans.  In response, the agency became creative with their housing solutions.  Rather than re-opening shelters, they returned to the old model of community-based safe houses, and they shifted their transitional housing focus to a long-term, empowering approach.  Catholic Charities works with private landlords to house survivors who would otherwise be homeless. While the check comes from Catholic Charities (through federal rental assistance funding) for the first six to eight months, the apartments are leased directly to the survivors, rebuilding broken or nonexistent credit.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Catholic Charities also furthered a goal they had worked towards for years: a partnership with their local Public Housing Authority (PHA).  Through this new partnership, Catholic Charities screens PHA applicants who may be domestic violence victims, and trains advocates from Crescent House to facilitate the application process on both sides.  The Housing Authority of New Orleans has worked with Catholic Charities to give preference for Housing Choice Vouchers to homeless survivors of domestic violence. As a result, it only takes one month to get the victims connected and settled in an apartment.   Once housed through this partnership, survivors continue to receive supportive services from Catholic Charities while they stabilize.  Since it began two years ago, this initiative has averted homelessness and resulted in housing for more than 300 survivors.

- Learn more about Catholic Charities, Archdiocese of New Orleans