Domestic Violence Transitional Housing

Address

The Domestic Violence Transitional Housing component has a secure location for the safety of our residents, and the Rapid Rehousing component is scattered-site housing in various locations throughout the city.

Facility

The Domestic Violence Transitional Housing component is a two-story building that offers 18 rooms with up to 37 beds. The facility provides each family with a private room, with shared kitchens and bathrooms. There are free laundry facilities, a lounge area for TV viewing, a fully functioning kitchen, and a secure playground. The secure site is staffed 24 hours a day. The Rapid Rehousing component is scattered-site housing throughout the city. There are 43 units and up to 75 beds, depending on the size of the family.

Support

As part of this program, we provide case management to each individual or family, including a needs assessment and an individualized service plan with the primary goal being rapid exit to permanent housing. Case managers help clients in the following areas—housing, physical and mental health, drug and alcohol use, financial stability or debt reduction, legal issues, education, employment, parenting, daily life skills, and socialization or support networks. They also receive help with safety planning. In the Domestic Violence Transitional Housing component, clients are served three free meals every day and can receive free groceries at our Food Pantry. Residents may work or attend school during their stay to improve their access to income and stable permanent housing. They can also participate in art therapy, which is one way to help them heal in their journey.

In 2018, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recognized a growing need for permanent housing for those who are homeless due to fleeing domestic violence. Domestic violence is the leading cause for women becoming homeless. HUD made bonus funding available for new projects exclusively serving those fleeing domestic violence, which we applied for and were approved to start the Domestic Violence Transitional Housing & Rapid Rehousing Program in 2020. At the time, we were strategically winding down an underutilized sited-based transitional housing program that focused on helping women with substance use problems, and that facility became available for the new transitional housing and rapid rehousing project.

This project was the first HUD Continuum of Care (CoC) funded project in Louisville designated to serve those fleeing domestic violence. Prior to this project, the Louisville CoC had not developed a way to document and legitimize the homeless status of those fleeing domestic violence, so this project filled a critical gap in homeless services locally. Since the initiation of this project in 2020, the CoC has begun documenting and tracking this demographic, which has become a substantial proportion of the homeless individuals and families identified and served in Louisville.

Offering both transitional housing and rapid rehousing in the same project provides survivors with the maximum flexibility and autonomy to make choices about what housing would be safest for their household given their own risk factors and personal histories. In 2020, we shifted away from recovery because there were a lot of organizations focusing on sobriety, but very few with domestic violence programs.