Safe and Stable Housing for Intimate Partner Violence Survivors

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is among the most underreported crimes in the USA. Housing for IPV survivors is a longstanding priority for advocates and service providers. Working in collaboration with House Of Ruth Maryland (HRM), a comprehensive IPV service provider in Baltimore, MD, Professor Michele Decker, Assistant Professor Charvonne Holliday Nworu, and recent Initiative Fellow Janice Miller identified profound barriers to accessing justice among IPV/SV survivors - and racial and ethnic differences in self-reporting IPV to police.

The results from this Initiative-funded work sparked additional funding from the National Institute of Justice in 2019 to evaluate HRM’s IPV housing supports, including their transitional housing and an innovative community-based rapid rehousing model. Newly released results from this prospective, quasi-experimental evaluation identified profound reductions in IPV revictimization and housing instability at 3-month and 6-month follow-up among women receiving housing services due to IPV. Results are now available in the American Journal of Public Health and a policy brief that highlights the role of supportive housing in interrupting the cycle of homelessness and IPV.

Read the paper here. 

Read the policy brief here.