Family Violence Law Center and Oakland City Auditor, Courtney Ruby Collaborate For Women Experiencing Homelessness

Oakland – In grant of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Family Violence Law Center (FVLC) and Oakland’s City Auditor, Courtney Ruby denote their collaboration to grow the nationalist sermon connected homelessness. This collaboration comes astatine a clip of accrued unit from the Oakland assemblage to prioritize the City’s homelessness crisis. To advocates connected the ground, the City’s conflict to “solve” homelessness stems from a cardinal misunderstanding of who is stateless and what radical experiencing homelessness request to beryllium harmless and successfully housed. This concern betwixt FVLC and the Oakland City Auditor’s Office whitethorn beryllium the archetypal measurement successful correcting a systemic issue.

In April 2021, Auditor Ruby released a Performance Audit of the City of Oakland’s Homeless Encampment Management Intervention and Activities. While the audit was thorough, it did not specifically code the unsocial challenges successful quantifying the grade of homelessness among women, and item the issues facing unhoused women. The FVLC Policy Department responded to this audit detailing its gaps, and appealing to the City Auditor to integrate sex considerations and the unequal impacts of homelessness connected women into aboriginal assessments of lodging and homelessness successful Oakland. Since then, the FVLC Policy Department, Auditor Ruby and her squad person been eagerly moving unneurotic to nutrient a much broad audit that volition measure the City’s show successful serving each residents including women, transgender, sex nonconforming, and intersex (TGI) people.

Auditor Ruby noted, “I’m profoundly grateful the FVLC took the clip to scope retired and amended my squad and maine connected however the City Auditor’s Office could amended our enactment regarding homelessness and lodging by presenting issues of peculiar interest to women. In a caller gathering with FVLC, they explained the repercussions of sex issues not being addressed oregon called retired erstwhile discussing our unhoused population. FVLC made it wide that a deficiency of information of sex successful the improvement and implementation of policies astir homelessness and related interventions, exacerbates inequities and diminishes the likelihood that women experiencing homelessness volition beryllium adequately served.”

“At FVLC, 1 of our goals with Domestic Violence Awareness Month is to person meaningful conversations with assemblage members astir home unit issues,” says Nishara Gunasekara, Housing and Gender Justice Advocate astatine Family Violence Law Center. “Oftentimes, home unit is couched distant arsenic a “private” issue, which perpetuates soundlessness and stigma. We are grateful for Auditor Ruby’s and her team’s willingness to not lone prosecute astir this topic, but assistance america item what has been ignored for truthful long.”

“Domestic unit is the biggest operator of women’s homelessness,” says Tunisia Owens, Policy and Advocacy Manager astatine Family Violence Law Center. “Once unhoused, women are astatine adjacent greater hazard of intersexual battle and home violence. As a result, women volition double-up connected beds, sofa surf, and slumber successful cars, fundamentally exhausting each different means earlier resorting to thoroughfare homelessness. This means that women’s homelessness is often little disposable to the nationalist due to the fact that information is simply a specified a immense concern. Nevertheless, women and TGI folks marque up implicit a 3rd of Alameda County’s stateless population, and for galore reasons, we powerfully judge adjacent this is an undercount. Expanding our cognition of who is stateless and what their needs are is the archetypal measurement successful addressing and caring for our stateless populations. We judge our collaboration with the Oakland City Auditor’s Office tin service a captious relation successful this work.”

The Office of the City Auditor is presently conducting it’s 2nd audit of homelessness successful Oakland. This audit volition place disparities successful work and outcomes among the assorted populations that marque up Oakland’s unhoused population, measure the coordination, concern and show of metropolis departments, different governmental agencies, and contractors, successful summation to analyzing programme retention rates.

Auditor Ruby stated, “Our audits enactment to unearth systemic issues and usher the City successful addressing the needs of each our residents. Our collaboration with FVLC is simply a reminder astir the value of getting feedback from the nationalist connected our audits that straight interaction our residents. As 1 of 4 women serving arsenic a Citywide elected authoritative successful Oakland, I person a work to guarantee we are doing each we tin to rise consciousness connected home unit and different issues affecting women and keeping survivors harmless and served.”

“We anticipation this concern betwixt FVLC and the Oakland City Auditor’s Office inspires gender-based unit advocates crossed the Bay Area and California to scope retired to their City Auditor to spot what tin beryllium done connected expanding the dialog connected homelessness,” says Tunisia Owens. “In this work, allies are our biggest spot and we are gladsome to person welcomed Auditor Ruby and her squad into this space.”

To larn more, delight articulation FVLC, Auditor Ruby, Dr. Sarai Crain from Oakland’s Domestic Violence Prevention Unit, and Kerry Abbott from Alameda County’s Office connected Homeless Care and Coordination connected October 15, 2021 astatine 10:30 AM (PST) for “A Conversation connected Domestic Violence and Homelessness.” Pre-register here.