Housing as Economic Empowerment: the Economic Impact of Wisconsin’s Domestic Violence Housing First Pilot Program

• In Event: Policy Interventions for Domestic Violence Prevention and Support: Evaluating Impacts and Implementation

Abstract

In the United States, almost one in two women will experience some form of physical, sexual or psychological violence at the hands of an intimate partner. Moreover, domestic violence is correlated with a plethora of negative outcomes including poor health, substance abuse, and exposure to further violence. Most importantly, the lack of safe and affordable housing continues to be a significant barrier for individuals and families trying to escape violent relationships. Wisconsin’s Domestic Violence Housing First Pilot Program (WI-DVHF) is a policy intervention designed to prioritize finding stable housing for families exposed to DV before addressing other concerns such as unemployment, physical and mental health, and substance abuse. In particular, the WI-DVHF framework emphasizes providing survivors with flexible financial assistance which can be used to address any barrier to securing safe and stable faced by a survivor including rent and security deposit, transportation, childcare, household repairs, and legal documentation.

While Housing First approaches have been demonstrated to have success with chronically homeless and unhoused populations, their application within domestic violence contexts, particularly their impact on economic outcomes, remains understudied. This paper examines the implementation of WI-DVHF, a three-year pilot of Housing First philosophy in nine domestic violence and community organizations across Wisconsin. Specifically, it utilizes longitudinal data from domestic violence survivors to assess potential improvements in economic domains including improvements in employment stability and retention, household income, financial literacy, debt management, and long-term financial independence. Analyzing these outcomes is important for understanding whether mitigating immediate housing needs through WI-DVHF also helps to prevent survivors from returning to abusive situations for their economic survival, and for how specialized economic advocacy can be incorporated into domestic violence service provision.

Author

• Mariel Barnes, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  Presenting Author