October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and survivors of domestic abuse and shelter providers are pushing Governor Kathy Hochul to sign the SAFE Shelter Act into law. They say New York State’s domestic violence shelter system, originally designed to support women with children, has left an alarming gap in resources for single survivors of domestic violence, trafficking, and gender-based violence.

In 2023, the New York City Police Department responded to 245,018 domestic incident reports (DIRs), of which 116,878 were intimate partner-related and 89,223 were family-related.

In Midtown, Community Districts 4 and 5 reported intimate partner violence (IPV) felony assault rates 1.3 times higher than Manhattan as a whole.

Single adult survivors without children are often left without shelter due to the limitations of the current reimbursement structure in NYC, as stated by Safe Horizon, a leading victims assistance organization. Commonly referred to as the “heads in beds” system, shelters receive payment based on the number of individuals (or “heads”) occupying beds in their facilities, on a per-person, per-night basis.

According to data from New York City’s Domestic Violence Hotline, 50% of calls were from single survivors without children in need of shelter. Yet, only 18% of those survivors were connected to a shelter, compared to 72% of survivors with one child and 66% of survivors with two children.

Vanessa Santiago, a survivor of domestic violence, spoke at a press conference hosted by Safe Horizon, where she shared her struggle with finding shelter as a single individual with three pet dogs. “I felt very discouraged…my dogs are my babies. I don’t have children…they also are my ESA [Emotional Support Animals] animals so I needed their support as well,” she said.

“There’s a lot of people out there that will miss the opportunity of being successful in society,” she said, connecting the bill to societal issues such as homelessness and reintegration for formerly incarcerated individuals like herself.

The scarcity of units for single survivors forces many into dangerous alternatives.

According to documents provided by Safe Horizon, which connects survivors of all forms of violence to resources, one such survivor, Beth, a 60-year-old blind woman, called the organization’s 24-hour Domestic Violence Hotline after being physically assaulted by her former partner. Despite her urgent need for shelter, Safe Horizon called 12 separate shelters on her behalf, but none could accommodate her as a single survivor.

“Even the homeless shelters were overcrowded,” a social worker told the hotline advocate, leaving Beth vulnerable as she was discharged from the hospital.

Other survivors, like Carol, faced similar challenges. After being physically assaulted by her boyfriend, Carol called Safe Horizon’s hotline 16 times over three days, desperately seeking shelter. Due to the lack of available single spaces, Carol was left without options and feared returning to the home she shared with her abuser.

“Despite a general decline in violent crime rates, domestic violence remains alarmingly high across New York and the nation—especially within marginalized communities like Black, Hispanic, and LGBTQIA+ populations,” said Dr. Amanda Eckhardt, Chief Program Officer at Urban Resource Institute (URI), which provides services and shelter for survivors of domestic violence. Eckhardt recalled how one LGBTQ survivor was repeatedly rejected by shelters, forcing them to make the “dire choice” between returning to their abusive partner or homelessness.

The current reimbursement system provides funding based on the number of individuals occupying a room, which poses financial challenges for shelters seeking to accommodate single survivors.

“If a provider places a single person in a room, they lose half the revenue, which covers rent, staffing, security, and utilities,” said  Jimmy Meagher, Policy Director at Safe Horizon. The SAFE Shelter Act seeks to address this issue by allowing shelters to be fully reimbursed for housing single individuals in rooms designed for families. “It stabilizes the sector and would greatly expand access to shelter, as singles are making up half of the shelter requests in New York City,” Meagher said.

The SAFE Shelter Act has passed both the Senate and Assembly and is now awaiting Governor Hochul’s signature. “Our hotline workers are emotionally exhausted from telling survivor after survivor that there’s no bed available. This legislation is desperately needed,” Meagher said.