We are excited to announce the launching of a new initiative, the National Alliance for Safe Housing (NASH)! The new alliance will work to provide greater access to safe housing for survivors of domestic and sexual violence across the United States. This project is the result of years of hard work – we will be collaborating with our partners at the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Volunteers of America Home Free in Portland, Oregon and the DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

The National Alliance for Safe Housing (NASH)’s overall goal is to ensure that survivors of domestic violence have access to a full range of housing options as they seek to rebuild their lives safely and free from abuse. “Despite the remarkable work done by so many homeless and victim services providers, for too many survivors, the safe housing and services they desperately need are fragmented, causing them to fall through the cracks,” said DASH Executive Director, Peg Hacskaylo. NASH will collaborate with a broad range of stakeholders in an attempt to close these gaps and create a spectrum of trauma informed safe housing for survivors including: domestic violence, sexual assault, and victim-specific housing programs, as well as homeless service providers and homeless Continuums of Care.

According to national statistics, survivors of domestic and sexual violence often face homelessness when leaving their abusive homes. On a one-day census among domestic violence programs last year, more than 36,000 survivors of domestic violence received safe housing (in shelters and transitional housing programs), but another 5,778 requests for housing went unmet (National Network to End Domestic Violence, 2014). “The amount of safe housing available to meet survivors’ demand is insufficient, meaning that many they are forced to find housing in homeless shelters or return to abusive partners for lack of availability,” said NASH Director, Larisa.

The new National Alliance for Safe Housing, or (NASH) has been made possible due to a multi-year, $900,000 grant from the Department of Justice, Office of Violence Against Women. We are so grateful for this opportunity.

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DASH is an innovator in providing access to safe housing and services for survivors of domestic and sexual violence, and their families, as they rebuild their lives on their own terms. We envision a culture where safe housing is a human right shared by everyone.