April 27, 2006

By JASON SIEGEL
Contributing Writer

Volunteers of America Oregon closed its Portland shelter in October 2003 and started a new program focused on providing affordable permanent housing first, then serving clients.

It was a gamble that they believed would provide more bed space and better support for those fleeing domestic abuse.

Since then their program, Home Free, has doubled the number of clients it serves. It is being seen as a new approach for service providers.

Kris Billardt, the architect of Home Free, explained the program in a public forum attended mostly by social service professionals in Seattle on April 19.

Home Free’s advocates help clients find housing and often pay the application fees and rent for three to six months, decreasing support as the survivor becomes more self-sufficient. “We don’t lease apartments,” said Billardt. Instead, “advocates form relationships with landlords and apartment managers” so that they “will recognize us when we refer somebody.”

“ Because landlords know we’re going to be helping with the rent, they’re willing to take a gamble if [a client] doesn’t have much of an income,” he said.

Home Free provides housing and support to people often turned down by shelters, like mothers with teen children or families, when shelters are without the bed space to accept every family member.

Because this housing is permanent, unlike shelters or transitional housing, domestic violence survivors are able to spend time seeking out services and employment, rather than planning for when they’ll move into a different shelter.

Also, the housing provided is single-family. This eliminates the difficulties that can arise in group shelters and lead a family toward moving back in with an abuser.

Secure housing reduces the chance of revictimization. Women linked with advocates in a post-crisis period feel they’re better able to obtain resources and get social support, said Billhardt, citing a 2002 study led by Michigan State University Professor Cris Sullivan.

“ In our community, we have a lot of repeat customers to emergency services. If we can get them out and into housing using non-emergency services, that will allow for more space,” said Billhardt.

One out of every 15 people seeking shelter are currently turned down in King County, according to Linda Olsen of the City of Seattle’s Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Division. This amounts to more than 35,000 unmet requests in 2005.

Although some people are requesting services more than once, this only shows how desperate they are to get housing, she says. “I think King County has one of the best domestic-violence programs in the country, but it’s seeing how we can expand that capacity. What we need are the additional housing dollars,” says Olsen.

Olsen says Home Free’s ability to set funds aside to aid clients on an as-needed basis is key to preventing domestic violence victims from becoming homeless. She sees these funds similarly being used to help make rent payments, change a lock, or — if a survivor can’t stay at home because of the abuse — help her through the process of finding and obtaining housing.

“ It’s an exciting model,” says Merrill Cousin of the King County Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

“ Rather than staying at a facility, someone can stay in their community where they want to live. My thought is we’d need some form of additional funding to getting that type of option. But this would be to increase our capacity,” says Cousin.

The forum stressed the value of shelters for the homeless being aware of services available through domestic-violence providers.

“ We need a variety of options. This is one idea,” emphasized Billardt at the forum. “This works for some people; other people need a more structured setting. We’re always going to need shelters, but I think they have become more than they were intended to be and we need to look at what role we’d like them to play.” n