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The ‘Triple Tsunami’ of COVID-19, Economic Collapse, and Domestic Violence

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As the global pandemic wears on into its eighth month — Domestic Violence Awareness Month — the impact on those experiencing domestic violence has continued to intensify. The combination of the COVID-19 crisis, the economic downturn, and stay-at-home orders has meant that “we are in the midst of a triple tsunami, and then you add in the many examples of racist policing and you have a quadruple threat to domestic violence survivors,” said Dorchen Leidholdt, director of the Center for Battered Women’s Legal Services at Sanctuary for Families, a New York-based advocacy organization.

There is a direct correlation between economic insecurity and domestic violence, and 60% of Sanctuary for Families’ clients make less than $20,000 a year. And if employed, their jobs are concentrated in sectors such as food service, retail, and domestic work, “all industries that have gone belly up. Our clients’ needs are greater than ever before and their lives are more in danger than ever before,” said Leidholdt. “And now that racist policing is under a renewed spotlight, as well it should be, our clients who need police intervention are often reluctant to call the police. We are hearing reports of increased fear of the police from our clients as well as heightened skepticism from the police when they do respond.”

Additionally, for someone experiencing domestic violence, sheltering in place may not be a safe option with an abuser and may in fact contribute to “an escalation of physical and psychological violence, of sexual violence, and abusers using the risk of COVID exposure by threatening to kick the survivor out of the home,” said Leidholdt.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing economic fallout, domestic violence programs have been severely underfunded. “Despite the heroic efforts of advocates at local domestic violence programs, many simply do not have the resources to serve all survivors in need, and they are often forced to turn away survivors and their children when shelters are full or when services are unavailable,” said Deborah J. Vagins, president and CEO of the National Network to End Domestic Violence. Each year thousands of requests for emergency shelter, housing, transportation, child care, and legal representation go unmet due to this lack in funding — and the pandemic has only worsened the situation. “Crises like COVID-19, similar to natural disasters, reduce the options for survivors of domestic violence because there are fewer services and interventions available — shelters may not have space, courts might not be processing emergency protection orders, or doctors might not have time to make referrals,” said Vagins.

When a survivor has been making gains in their life, a job loss can quickly undo that burgeoning progress. “Before the pandemic, my income was stable,” said Aicha, a survivor and advocate from northern California. “I was working three jobs while going to school and caring for my son. I was taking classes at a community college, in hopes of maybe becoming a therapist or counselor to support other survivors. Because I need to care for my son and limit his exposure to the virus, and my job cannot be done remotely, I’m now unable to work and lost my income. I’ve been fortunate to have a stable housing situation and get rental support from nonprofit programs that are reaching out to families who are facing financial hardship during the pandemic. But depending on where you live in the country, that’s not always the case.”

Having financial security is an “important bulwark against domestic violence,” states EnsuringDomestic Violence Survivors’ Safety, a report from the Center for American Progress (CAP). One study cited in the report found that 75% of women who were staying in shelters had stayed longer with their abuser because of financial concerns. “The situation for our clients is devastating,” said Morgan Weibel, executive director of the San Francisco Bay Area Tahirih Justice Center, a direct services and advocacy organization for immigrant women and girls fleeing violence. “We have seen a 900% increase in our clients asking for financial assistance. One of the complications for domestic violence survivors is that so much of the power and control revolves around finances. That was true before the pandemic, but it is even more exacerbated now. We are hearing from survivors who had been living with their abuser and have had flare-ups of abuse. If there was ever a time to donate to your local domestic violence shelter, now is the time.”

Domestic violence organizations are facing financial challenges of their own including the loss of private funding through canceled fundraising events at the same time that expenditures have gone up. “The cost of caring for people during COVID is expensive,” said Kiersten Stewart, director of public policy and advocacy at Futures Without Violence, a health and social justice nonprofit with a focus on violence prevention. “Some organizations have to pay for motels and PPE and cleaning and sanitizing equipment. Right now shelters in many places are at capacity because people can’t leave or they have to take fewer people, but the need has not gone down.”

The CAP report calls for “strengthening the survivor support infrastructure,” comprehensive paid leave, affordable child care, and unemployment insurance for survivors, and urges that shelters be deemed essential businesses and survivor relocation classified as essential travel. Additionally, shelters and survivor support services must ensure that they are LGBTQ+ friendly, as transgender survivors regularly face discrimination and are denied homeless shelter services. “The downstream effects of the pandemic — historic job loss, loss of employer-sponsored health insurance, limited access to child care that may further prevent or limit work, and financial burdens such as mounting rent/mortgage payments and medical bills — may contribute to a cycle of economic insecurity that leaves survivors financially dependent on an abuser,” said Robin Bleiweis, research associate at CAP’s Women’s Initiative and co-author of the report. “The need to stay at home to slow the spread of the virus coupled with significant economic stressors put domestic violence survivors at heightened risk of experiencing violence and, without access to crucial supports and services, may make it more difficult for a survivor to escape violence.”

Advocates are also concerned about the long-term psychological impact that COVID-19 will have on survivors. “COVID has been very triggering, especially for people who have experienced sexual violence, because you are restricted physically and you don't know what is going to happen, and the worry over your health,” said a client of Sanctuary for Families who is also a survivor advocate. “I found it triggering when dealing with the mandated visitations that my child has with her father, even though we have an active order of protection against him. I feel like I have to choose between following the court order, and my own life and safety. I didn't bring my child to the visits for months, and her father has threatened to take me to court, so now I am afraid of the consequences of noncompliance of the visitation order. The legacy of COVID-19 will be the trauma and PTSD from violence, and I wish there was a way to resolve and heal this collective trauma."

Despite the many challenges that organizations and shelters are facing, advocates want to ensure that survivors know that they should still reach out. “It’s important that people know that shelters are open, hotlines are still operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in every language,” said Stewart. “We don't want people to stay with their abuser because they think no one can help them. We are here."



More articles by Category: Violence against women
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