Collaborative Approach to Housing for Survivors
NNEDV’s Collaborative Approach to Housing for Survivors (CAHS) team provides training, technical assistance, and resource development at the critical intersection of domestic violence, homelessness, and housing. The team also engages in systems work, advocating for policies to increase survivors’ access to housing and protect their confidentiality. We believe that survivors should be able to obtain housing to rebuild their lives without having to sacrifice privacy or safety due to data collection requirements.
Collaborating at the Local, State, Territorial, National, and Federal Levels
The team works strengthen the collaborations necessary to improve housing options for survivors of domestic violence and their children in order to enhance safety, stability, and well-being. CAHS is a partner of the Domestic Violence and Housing Technical Assistance Consortium (DVHTAC), an innovative national project funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), dedicated to building the capacity of state and territorial coalitions and local programs to improve policies to address the needs of survivors. Working with DVHTAC and experts from national, state, territorial, and local organizations, we help strengthen technical assistance available to both housing/homelessness providers and domestic violence service providers.
Training and Technical Assistance
The CAHS team is uniquely placed to provide training and support to domestic and sexual violence advocates, homelessness and housing providers, and other allied partners interested in building stronger community collaborations. We are the leading source of training and individualized technical assistance for communities striving to expand the array of safe housing options for domestic and sexual violence survivors. This includes intensive assistance for states seeking to transition to a comparable database that meets the confidentiality standards under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and HUD’s Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) data requirements.
Systems-Building
The team builds upon the valuable on-the-ground experience gained from our federally funded activities to engage in separate projects as a leading voice for survivors on Capitol Hill. NNEDV works with national housing and homeless organizations to ensure that the housing needs of victims of domestic violence are being met through domestic violence-specific legislation, federal housing legislation and federal regulations.
NNEDV has taken a proactive stance on ensuring victims’ and survivors’ confidentiality and has addressed this issue through a number of legislative activities. Working with Congressional staff and privacy experts, we helped to draft a bill to overhaul the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) to provide better confidentiality for all homeless individuals. We helped Congress craft provisions in the 2005 VAWA reauthorization that protect shelters from requirements to share personally identifying data with third-party databases, including HMIS. We led efforts that resulted in a historic $50 million set-aside for rapid re-housing for domestic violence survivors. In addition, NNEDV provides expertise to Congress and federal policymakers on other issues of confidentiality for victims.
CAHS is working to make the statement “every home a safe home” a reality.
Looking for technical assistance, interested in a training, or want to know more about our systems advocacy? Contact our team today.
Additional Resources
- Tip Sheet: Best Practices for Setting Eligibility Criteria:
- Coordinated Entry: Confidentiality Requirements in Practice:
- Creating Access for Survivors: Category 4 Hearth Homeless Designation: Fleeing, or Attempting to Flee, Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, Stalking and Human Trafficking:
- Choosing a Comparable Database: Aligning Data and Confidentiality, A Case Study for Domestic and Sexual Violence Coalitions:
- Developing Housing for Survivors of Domestic Violence:
- HUD Continuum of Care and Emergency Solutions Grant Grantee Monitoring for Victim Service Providers:
- Watch our latest webinars.
- Check out NNEDV’s entire Transitional Housing Toolkit