By Sarah Brown
Director of Communications
The Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence is disheartened to see that the budget debate in Washington largely ignores the very real impact that spending cuts will have on our communities. In Georgia, more people are struggling to pay their rent each month as rents rise, evictions increase, and more are pushed into homelessness. Intimate partner violence is the primary driver of homelessness for women and children not only in Georgia, but across the country. Studies consistently show that when survivors of intimate partner violence have resources to safely leave a violent relationship, the chances that they will remain free from intimate partner violence increase exponentially. But leaving a violent relationship often means leaving housing and sometimes work behind which often results in many survivors having extremely low or no income.
Last year, Georgia’s domestic violence programs sheltered 5,516 victims and every year they turn away more than 3,5000 victims and their children due to lack of bed space. Where are these victims supposed to go? Research from the National Low Income Housing Coalition found a shortage of more than 213,000 apartments in Georgia that are available and affordable to families with extremely low incomes. This means that there are only 34 affordable apartments for every 100 extremely low-income families. What happens to the other roughly 2000 victims? With few options, they either become homeless or for those who do find housing, a full three-quarters of these households pay more than half of their limited income on rent.
Because “the rent eats first,” as sociologist and author Matthew Desmond says, these families are forced to make impossible tradeoffs and skimp on groceries, medical care, and other basic needs. Even federally subsidized voucher programs don’t always result in a place to live as landlords are not required to accept the vouchers and the waitlists can be impossibly long. Now, we are looking at the possibility of dramatic cuts to even these programs that help people exit homelessness and afford a roof over their head. Our communities and neighbors cannot afford more spending cuts to critical housing investments – especially at a time when pandemic-era renter protections are expiring, resources are being depleted, and renters are confronted with inflation, rising rents, increased evictions, and in many communities, more people unhoused.
According to an analysis from HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge, these cuts would make it “impossible to stave off mass evictions,” as almost one million people who currently rely on HUD’s rental assistance programs to keep a roof over their heads would lose assistance. Nearly 120,000 fewer people experiencing homelessness would receive help accessing the resources they need to find and maintain safe, stable, affordable housing. This is the wrong path for our nation. Instead, we should expand proven solutions to ensure that everyone has a decent, affordable place to live. We can start by ensuring rental assistance is available to everyone who is eligible, building more homes that are affordable to people with the lowest incomes, creating permanent tools to help stabilize families in a crisis, and strengthening and enforcing renter protections. Investing in affordable housing leads to better health and education outcomes, supports economic mobility, and advances racial equity. It is time for Congress to put the needs of people first, not make it harder for our neighbors who are already struggling.