Searching for Sanctuary Homelessness and Sexual Assault Jessy Haywood, Community Educator The Center

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Searching for SanctuaryHomelessness and Sexual
AssaultJessy Haywood, Community EducatorThe
Center for Women and Families
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Agenda

• Defining and Understanding Homelessness
• Defining and Understanding Sexual Assault
• Intersections of homelessness and sexual assault
• Responding

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• According to HUD, homeless is defined in the U.S.
  as
• an individual who lacks a fixed, regular, and
  adequate nighttime residence and
• an individual who has a primary nighttime
  residence that is
• a supervised publicly or privately operated
  shelter designed to provide temporary living
  accommodations
• an institution that provides a temporary
  residence for individuals intended to be
  institutionalized or
• a public or private place not designed for, or
  ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping
  accommodation for human beings.

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Homelessness

• Exclusion
• the term homeless or homeless individual does
  not include any individual imprisoned or
  otherwise detained pursuant to an Act of the
  Congress or a State law.

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Homelessness

• Who might be excluded from this definition?

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Homelessness - Facts

• It is estimated that homeless persons have a life
  expectancy at least 20 years below the national
  average
• Not all homeless persons seek or desire to be
  housed
• Homelessness is not largely caused by poverty per
  se
• Even a small homeless population impacts upon
  every member of a community
• Homelessness intersects with many
  victimization-related issues including substance
  use and abuse, assault, rape, mental illness and
  social isolation

Statistic provided by Volunteers of America
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Demographics

• 39 of the U.S. homeless population is under the
  age of 18 (nearly half of these are under the age
  of 5) and 5 of these minors are unaccompanied
• 25 are age 25-34 and 6 are age 55-64
• Single men account for 50 of homeless persons
  while single women account for 17
• Families with children account for 33 of
  homeless persons
• 50 of homeless women and children are homeless
  due to fleeing domestic violence
• 11 of homeless persons are veterans
• Female veterans are the fastest growing
  population among individual homeless persons

Statistics provided by the NCH
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The Stigmatization of Homelessness

• The Dirty Bum
• The Happy Hobo

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Sexual Assault

• Legal definitions vary state by state and can
  include

• Forced Sexual Performance
• Statutory Rape
• Groping
• Indecent Exposure

• Rape
• Attempted Rape
• Sexual Abuse
• Molestation
• Sodomy

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Sexual Assault

• Definition Any non-consensual, sexual contact
• Sexual Contact Intended for the sexual
  gratification of either party

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Sexual Assault - Facts

• Is abuse of power of through sexual means.
• All about maintaining power and control. There
  are a multitude of ways to establish power and
  control through unwanted sexual actions
• Usually perpetrated by someone known.
• Usually involves manipulation and coercion as
  well as or instead of violence or threats (thus
  making it harder for victims to label/identify)
• Can be physically painful
• Sometimes bodies respond to being touched
• Verbal barrages as a part of the assault
• Often substances are involved

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Sexual Assault Statistics

• Approximately 1 in 6 women and 1 in 33 men will
  be victims of sexual assault in their lifetimes
• Perpetrated about every 2 minutes in the U.S.
• 85 of victims know the perpetrator
• 80 are planned
• 44 of victims are under age 18, 80 under age
  30, 15 under age 12
• According to the FBI, is the most underreported
  crime in the U.S.
• 4-30 contract an STI as a result of the attack
  
• About half of all rape victims are in the lowest
  third of income distribution half are in the
  upper two-thirds

Statistics provided by RAINN, Department of
Justice
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Stigmatization of Sexual Assault

• Sluts
• Nuts

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Intersections
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Intersections

• Brown Bassuk, 1997 92 of homeless mothers had
  experienced severe physical and/or sexual
  violence.
• Wenzel et al., 2000 13 of homeless women had
  been raped in the past 12 months, 9 in the past
  month
• Stermac Paradis, 2001 Incidents of sexual
  assault against homeless women are more likely to
  involve a greater severity of violence and
  multiple sexual acts (when compared with
  low-income, housed women)
• National Center for Family Homelessness
  One-third of homeless women who have experienced
  assault have attempted suicide at least once

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Understanding the Problem

• Understanding causality is difficult, but several
  factors can be considered as contributing to the
  increased victimization of homeless persons
• Duration of homelessness
• Location while homeless
• Gender and/or sexual orientation
• Age
• Childhood abuse
• History of domestic violence
• Use of economic survival strategies (panhandling,
  prostitution, etc.)
• Substance abuse/chemical dependence

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Duration Location

• Longer time spent without shelter or safe place
• Tyler et al., 2000 Adolescents who have spent
  more time homeless are more likely to engage with
  friends who use sexual survival strategies
• Urban v. Rural
• Availability of Services
• The Shelter v. The Street
• Green et al., 1999 27.5 of street youth had
  engaged in survival sex compared to 9.5 of
  shelter youth
• Cauce, 2004 Just having a bed reduces the rate
  of sexual victimization
• Tyler et al., 2004 Homeless females who were
  physically well-groomed were significantly more
  likely to be assaulted by a friend or
  acquaintance. Homeless males who were
  well-groomed were at significantly greater risk
  to be assaulted by strangers

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Gender Sexual Orientation

• Women account for approximately 90-95 of victims
  of sexual assault
• Most male victims of sexual assault (80) are
  assaulted by another male
• Tyler et al., 2004 Homeless men who identified
  as gay were 5x more likely to be victimized by a
  friend or acquaintance
• Cochran et al., 2002
• GLBT youth left home more often (12.38 times)
  than heterosexual youth (6.69 times)
• GLBT homeless persons are physically and sexually
  victimized by seven more people, on average, than
  heterosexual persons
• GLBT homeless youth reported higher levels of
  depression, social withdrawal, somatic
  complaints, social problems, deliquency and
  aggression than heterosexual youth

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Age

• Age at which a youth leaves home impacts duration
  of homelessness
• Myth Young people are safer to assault because
  they probably dont have STIs
• 44 of rape victims are under age 18, 80 are
  under age 30
• Cauce, 2004 Youth who left home at 13, 14 or 15
  were more likely to be sexually assaulted than
  those who left at 17.
• Tyler et al., 2004 Adolescents leaving home for
  the first time at an early age are at greater
  risk to be sexually assaulted by a stranger.
• Estes Weiner, 2001 The average age of entry
  into prostitution is 12-14 for girls and 11-13
  for boys

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Childhood Sexual Abuse

• Stermac et al., 2004 Of women seeking services
  from rape crisis centers, 43 of homeless women
  reported childhood sexual abuse compared to 24.6
  of housed women
• Nyamathi et al., 2001 Homeless women survivors
  of childhood sexual abuse are twice as likely as
  non-survivors to be sexually victimized in
  adulthood.
• Cauce, 2004 60 of females and 25 of males have
  been sexually assaulted prior to leaving home
• AFC, 2005 38 of homeless youth report sexual
  abuse as their primary reason for leaving home
• Tyler Cauce, 2001 A history of sexual abuse is
  associated with creating deviant peer
  relationships including sexual survivial
  strategies

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Domestic Violence

• DV is a substantial risk factor for homelessness.
• Brown Bassuk, 1997 Approximately 50 of
  homeless women and children are homeless because
  of domestic violence.
• Matraux Culhane, 1999 A history of DV
  increases the risk for repeat homelessness and
  shelter use.
• Housing Staying v. Leaving

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Economic Survival Strategies

• Wenzel, Koegel Gelberg, 2000 Homeless women
  who panhandle, trade sex for money, goods or
  services, are three times more likely than their
  housed counterparts to be victims of sexual
  assault or other forms of violence.
• Farley Barkan, 1998 84 of women who trade sex
  for money, goods or services report current or
  past homelessness.
• Women who engage in the sex trade are at
  increased risk for sexual victimization and are
  far less likely to report such assaults.
• Ennett et al., 1999 Approximately 50 of
  homeless youth had traded sex for money, drugs,
  food or shelter
• When substances are involved, risk increases.
• Survival sex and consent

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Substance Use

• Wenzel et al., 2004 Homeless women are more
  likely to have substance abuse problems than
  their low-income, housed peers.
• Wenzel, Leake Gelberg, 2000 Homeless women who
  have experienced either physical or sexual
  assault in the past month were 3x more likely to
  report both drug and alcohol abuse or dependence
  than non-assaulted homeless women.
• Goodman, 2006 Substance use increases risk for
  assault by altering danger perceptions, using
  risky economic survival strategies, disabling
  victims from warding off attackers, making them
  less believable to authorities (and therefore,
  easier targets), submerging them in dangerous
  milieus that include interactions with criminals.

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• Responding

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Meeting at the Intersections

• Trauma-informed homeless services
• Economic and Housing services offered by VAW
  programs
• Collaboration between service providers for
  homelessness and VAW programs
• Substance abuse services offered by VAW programs
  and homelessness service providers

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• Exercise Coordinating our Responses

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• Q A /
• Discussion

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• Thank You!