"March 8 is International Women's Day, and it's especially timely for us in the U.S. this year. The recent enactment of legislation reauthorizing and strengthening the Violence Against Women Act is a landmark event for women, and especially low-income women, in the U.S. The new law adds greater protections and resources for survivors of domestic violence and assault. It also brings our country closer to the goal of ensuring the human right to housing....
"Prevention is always the goal in addressing homelessness -- once a person becomes homeless, not only does she suffer the pain, harm and danger of being without housing, but it is also much harder to attain self-sufficiency. Without a home, everything else become much more difficult or even impossible: searching for and maintaining employment; keeping up medication regimes; obtaining public benefits; obtaining and keeping identification documents; and obtaining housing; to name just a few. Emergency resources such as shelter are woefully inadequate across the country, and living in public brings not just risks to health and even life, but also to safety, especially for women, who are at risk of being raped or sexually assaulted....
"Among the grievous harms described by some of the women -- and confirmed by countless others -- was the prospect of having their children taken away and put into foster care if they were to lose their housing...."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maria-foscarinis/domestic-violence-housing_b_2830511.html
Comments (0)