Uses of Flexible Funding to Prevent Homelessness for Survivors （運用靈活資金—避免倖存者無家可歸）

Being the victim of domestic violence is a leading cause of homelessness and housing instability for women and families, and once someone is homeless their lives often spiral downward quickly. While some survivors require extensive and possibly long-term assistance to achieve safe and stable housing (especially if they are contending with multiple complex issues), others could avoid homelessness and remain safe and stably housed if provided with immediate, individualized and flexible assistance. For these survivors, whose housing has been otherwise stable but who face homelessness because of a crisis related to intimate partner violence, a brief intervention that includes flexible funding, mobile advocacy, and access to community resources can restore a family’s equilibrium and prevent the devastating repercussions associated with homelessness. This workshop will highlight the development and evaluation of a flexible funding project at DASH, local program serving survivors in Washington, DC, including the lessons learned and barriers to implementation. National-level research and evaluations of other pilot projects will be presented, as well as trends in providing flexible financial assistance to survivors across the U.S. Participants will be engaged in a dynamic discussion about how and whether to implement flexible funding in their programs.