Objective: To assess if economic abuse, race, citizenship status, and criminal record are associated with severe housing instability among unstably housed domestic violence (DV) survivors. Data Source: Secondary data from the Domestic Violence Housing First (DVHF) Demonstration Evaluation, a longitudinal evaluation that assessed how mobile advocacy and flexible funding leads to desired outcomes for DV survivors and their children. Participants: Data from 392 unstably housed adult, female DV survivors. Methods: A cumulative ordinal logistic regression model series was conducted to determine if economic abuse, race, citizenship status, and criminal record were associated with severe housing instability. Results: DV survivors who had a criminal record were more likely to experience severe housing instability than were DV survivors without a criminal record. Contrary to my hypotheses, DV survivors who were U.S citizens were more likely to experience severe housing instability compared to non-citizens. Economic abuse was not associated with severe housing instability and racial differences were not evident. Conclusion: Overall, this study supported only one hypothesis - having a criminal record was associated with experiencing severe housing instability. Future research should focus on types of criminal records that contribute to severe housing instability. In addition, implications for policy suggest strengthening anti-discriminatory housing laws and conducting a holistic assessment of DV survivors with a criminal record who need housing. Furthermore, this study highlighted the need for a more sensitive measure of housing instability.
Read
