Members of the New York City Council and housing advocates are lauding a new program aimed at giving domestic violence survivors emergency grants to cover housing costs, but say the program's $1.2 million budget is a fraction of the $6 million needed to meet demand.
“Simply doing this keeps people in their homes, gets them stable, connects them to stabilizing services,” Councilmember Tiffany Cabán told Gothamist in an interview. “It will save the city so much money by making this upfront investment.”
During a Wednesday City Council committee hearing, representatives from the Mayor's Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence detailed their plans to give domestic violence survivors grants they can use on rent, moving costs and related expenses, such as medical costs and child care.
“[This is the] first time we’ve been here as a city doing this, saying we can give survivors debit cards, checks, we don’t have to pay landlords directly,” said Saloni Sethi, the office's first deputy.
The program, which Sethi said has yet to launch, is a scaled-up version of a privately funded pilot launched in 2020 that helped 377 people secure housing grants. The City Council passed legislation in 2022 cementing the program into law and funding it with city dollars.
While the new microgrants haven’t been distributed yet, Sethi said the program will give about 900 domestic violence survivors grants averaging $1,200 each.
Before the pandemic, domestic violence was the city's leading cause of homelessness — even surpassing evictions — according to a 2019 report from the city comptroller.
Data from the NYPD on domestic and family violence shows most victims are Black or Latino. In 2022, there were 272,000 domestic incident reports, city officials said on Wednesday, adding that national statistics show half of domestic violence survivors don’t report their abusers.
Sethi said domestic violence emergency shelters served 8,800 individuals in 2022.
“As a survivor, I felt trapped with my abuser living in the same household,” said Daniris Espinal, who received a microgrant during the pilot phase and is a member of New Destiny Housing's Survivor Voices Project. The non-profit focuses on providing housing to domestic violence survivors.
“The cost of moving and storage fees were staggering, my credit was ruined due to leasing my car from my abuser,” Espinal added.
Other advocates who testified said survivors need a quick infusion of flexible cash so they can quickly get to safe locations and away from their abusers.
Cabán called on Mayor Eric Adams to boost funding for the program to get more people stably housed and alleviate the city’s strained shelter system.
“The mayor made a commitment he said this is an important piece of legislation and I am going to make sure it is funded and he did not deliver on that promise,” she said.
The mayor’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
This story was updated to include additional information about New Destiny Housing's Survivor Voices Project.
