About Us

Safe Neighbor is an innovative solution to expedite the movement of money to help victims of crime quickly re-establish themselves in their communities. Transformation begins with Safe Neighbors.

The Problem

Victims’ service programs are increasingly turning to direct cash assistance to support victims to recover from violence and restore their lives to safety and stability. However, these same programs are frequently understaffed and overwhelmed with demand for services, and many lack the necessary internal capacity to effectively administer that process. Safe Neighbor offers a comprehensive solution to optimize giving out funding so that programs can focus on what they do best: helping victims be safe and whole.

Demonstrated Need

At least 1 in 4 women cite domestic violence as a major contributor to their homelessness. Housing instability is 4x more likely for women who have experienced domestic violence.

Sixty-four percent of trafficking survivors report being homeless or experiencing unstable housing at the time of recruitment which shows that this problem, left unchecked, will facilitate the growth of trafficking.

Survivors of violence face unique barriers to accessing and maintaining safe housing. This is true for all victims of crime, including survivors of community violence, those with marginalized identities, and survivors in culturally-specific communities.

Covid-19 made this exponentially more difficult, with the impact still being felt today. The fact that homeless women experience higher rates of violent victimization than women who have access to housing is a strong example of how this impacts the community at large.

The Solution

Safe Neighbor enables swift, accessible, and manageable dissemination of financial assistance to victims by:

Aligning administration with best practices
Increasing transparency and rapid support
Facilitating real time mobile advocacy
Ensuring accountability and good governance
Protecting consumer confidentiality
Enhancing matching for sourcing and eligibility
Reducing time and resource constraints.

Safe Neighbor offers the key to organizations to help survivors spring back from victimization and contribute to a growing community of other safe neighbors.

Transforming systems to match survivors’ resilience.

To learn more, contact us at info@safeneighbor.com. Click here for a copy of our Executive Summary.

References

National Center for Homelessness & Health Care for the Homeless Clinicians’ Network (2003). Social Supports for Homeless Mothers, 14, 26; Inst. for Children & Poverty (2004). The Hidden Migration: Why New York City Shelters are Overflowing with Families; Homes for the Homeless and Inst. for Children & Poverty (1998). Ten Cities 1997-1998: A Snapshot of Family Homelessness Across America, 3.

Pavao J, Alvarez J, Baumrind N, Induni M, Kimerling R. Intimate partner violence and housing instability. Am J Prev Med. 2007 Feb;32(2):143-6. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2006.10.008. PMID: 17234488.

Kushel, MB, Evans JL, Perry S, Robertson MJ, Moss AR. No door to lock: victimization among homeless and marginally housed persons. Arch Intern Med. 2003 Nov 10;163(20):2492-9. doi: 10.1001/archinte.163.20.2492. PMID: 14609786.

Polaris (2018). Human Trafficking and Housing & Homelessness. At: https://polarisproject.org/human-trafficking-and-housing-homelessness/

Miller, A., Segal, C., & Spencer, M. (2020). Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Domestic Violence in Los Angeles. IZA Institute of Labor Economics. At: https://docs.iza.org/dp13841.pdf

Intimate Partner Violence: A Data Snapshot Los Angeles County Domestic Violence Council. (2020). http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/dvcouncil/resources/docs/snapshot_0320.pdf

Family and Youth Services Bureau, Administration on Children, Youth, and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://www.acf.hhs.gov/fysb/fact-sheet/domestic-violence-and-homelessness-statistics-2016[ii]

Aratani, Y., 2009. Homeless Children and Youth, Causes and Consequences. New York, NY: National Center for Children in Poverty.

Estes. R & Weiner, N. (2011). The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children In the U. S., Canada and Mexico. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania.

Clough, A., Draughon, J. E., Njie-Carr, V., Rollins, C., & Glass, N. (2014). “Having housing made everything else possible”: Affordable, safe and stable housing for women survivors of violence. Qualitative Social Work, 13(5), 671-688.