To the editor:
Housing stability is a critical issue for survivors of domestic violence statewide.
One of the most important issues in the lives of domestic violence survivors is the challenge to maintain safe, stable, and affordable housing. Without stable housing, it is difficult or impossible for survivors to hold down a job, keep children in school, and stay healthy and safe. Advocates all over the state of Oregon see the serious impact that Oregon’s statewide housing crisis is having on victims of domestic violence and their children.
In communities across the state, victim advocates work every day to help survivors establish safety after leaving a violent partner.
Our jobs as advocates used to be to support families fleeing violence in their homes to get safe, get into shelter while they looked for a place, then help them to move in and stabilize their lives in a new home. In many communities around the state this is not the case anymore.
In some communities in Oregon there are families like Alisha and her 2 kids, 3-year-old Grace and 6-year-old Evan, who are sleeping in a car again this weekend. Alisha has a full time job at a grocery store, but she cannot find housing she can afford. Alisha made a choice no one in our community should have to make – between violence and homelessness.
In many communities, shelters run at capacity and are forced to turn victims away, not just because the need is greater than they can handle, but because the families in shelter are staying longer than ever before.
They can’t find an affordable place to go. If they are lucky enough to find a place, they could be given a no-cause termination notice or a rent increase at any time, leading them back to the horrible choice: return to the violent abuser, or suffer homelessness?
Alisha is worried about the toll this is taking on her kids. Grace has stopped talking. Evan can’t always stay awake in school. When there are few resources available, this type of instability may lead to negative outcomes for families in our communities. Three moves is equal to one year of lost education for students. This may lead to wasting educational resources when kids don’t have the stability they need to learn. Safe shelter and housing create opportunity, and are keys to breaking the cycle of poverty and violence.
We are asking Oregon legislators to remember families like Alisha’s this legislative session. These families need bold action regarding housing. Please increase funding for emergency shelters, provide more protections for the stability of tenants, and allow for inclusionary zoning and other mechanisms to provide more real permanent housing options. Without these protections, we risk losing Alisha and her family, and the Oregon we know and love.
Megan Smith, Portland
Janet Huera, Bend
Tara Koch, The Dalles
Jayne Downing, Salem
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