Peg Hacskaylo Archives - The District Alliance for Safe Housing

ED Peg Hacskaylo on Newstalk

With this year’s unusually severe winter conditions, the District of Columbia has seen a nearly doubled rate of families in emergency housing. [1] DASH Executive Director and Founder, Peg Hacskaylo went on air to discuss the DC homelessness crisis with Bruce DePuyt at News Channel 8.

Hacskaylo was joined by Patricia Fugere, the Executive Director of the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless.

Together they discussed the fact that most of the District’s housing resources are unable to reach the lowest income individuals and families in the region, which has contributed to the current crisis. Fugere however, asserts that there has been an affordable housing crisis in DC for the past several years, and that nearly half of the affordable housing stock once held in the city has been lost in the past decade.

They agree that it is important to focus on providing services, resources, and facilities for those very low income individuals and families as well as preserving the existing affordable housing that is at risk of gentrification.

Discussed within the segment

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was: issues of family separation, veteran and senior homelessness, challenges faced by the LGBTQ population, and myths and stereotypes surrounding homelessness.

Check out the entire segment here.

[1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/dc-homeless-crisis-puts-in-play-grays-record-as-city-steward/2014/02/09/098d518a-8dca-11e3-95dd-36ff657a4dae_story.html

DASH Receives National Award for Innovation in Safe Housing

On Monday, December 16, the District Alliance for Safe Housing, Inc. (DASH) was named as one of four national awardees of the Mary Bryon Project’s Celebrating Solutions Award for its innovative work in providing safe housing for victims of domestic and sexual violence in the District of Columbia.

The Mary Byron Project was established in 2000 in memory of the young woman whose tragic murder led to the creation of automated crime victim notification technologies. As a nationally recognized thought leader on domestic violence, the Mary Byron Project cultivates and supports efforts that extend beyond crisis management to attack the root causes of this epidemic and help build safer, healthier communities. They created the Celebrating Solutions Awards to showcase and applaud local innovations that demonstrate promise in breaking the cycle of violence. They select programs that can serve as models for the nation and offer $10,000 cash awards in recognition of their pioneering efforts. Nominations are judged by a panel of experts in criminal justice, health care, and public policy, and other disciplines that address domestic violence.

DASH is being recognized for their ground-breaking model of providing housing for survivors who face homelessness as a result of abuse. Throughout all of their programs, DASH works to ensure that domestic violence survivors, regardless of their circumstances, have access to a full range of housing options and that they don’t have to become homeless in the first place just to become safe from violence. Since then, through their model, partnerships, and example, they have helped change how safe housing is operated throughout the District and have helped hundreds of survivors find a safe place to call home.

“We are thrilled to be honored by the Mary Byron Project with the Celebrating Solutions Award” said Peg Hacskaylo, Executive Director of DASH. “Women are one the fastest growing groups of homeless people in the country and are also more vulnerable to be victimized while homeless. Through this award, we can continue to highlight our work to ensure that hundreds of families become safe from abuse without facing life on the streets.” Funds will be used to support DASH’s safe housing programs.

The Giving Library

DASH’s founder and Executive Director Peg Hacskaylo just returned from an exciting trip to Houston, TX, where she filmed a video for the Giving Library, a groundbreaking initiative that connects donors to nonprofit organizations through online video interviews. The library’s goal is to help nonprofits share their work while helping philanthropists enhance their strategic charitable giving.

DASH is thrilled to have the opportunity to highlight the innovative work we do and the courageous families we serve, on a national stage. As Peg notes in the video, “In the last seven years, [DASH has] grown to become the city’s largest dedicated safe housing provider for victims and their families and [has] almost tripled the amount of safe housing, through our own programs and in partnership with other providers. Moreover, our model of services has since become nationally known for our comprehensive and compassionate approach.”

The video will be ready in a few months and we can’t wait to share it with you. In the meantime, check out the photo of Peg filming in the studio. Thank you so much to the Giving Library and the Laura and the John Arnold Foundation for providing us with this opportunity and for their support as we continue our work to prevent survivors from having to choose between living without a home and living with abuse.

DASH Founder and Executive Director Blogs from Kabul

Our founder and executive director Peg Hacskaylo is in Kabul and will be in other parts of Afghanistan on sabbatical for the next three months. She’s traveled there to visit domestic violence housing and shelter services, run by Shukria Khaliqi. Shukria visited DASH last year for three days. Follow along as Peg blogs for The Huffington Post from Kabul. Here is her first post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/margaret-a-hacskaylo/the-currency-of-change_b_3254787.html.

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