Staff Report
Domestic Violence Solutions, Santa Barbara County’s only provider of 24-hour emergency shelter and full services for domestic violence victims, has been awarded state and federal contracts in excess of $625,000 to support the housing needs of survivors of domestic violence throughout the county in 2019.
“These awards represent an incredible opportunity to support our clients in the areas they most need it – housing acquisition and rental assistance, employment support and training, and quality child care,” said DVS Executive Director Jan Campbell.
The governor’s Office of Emergency Services granted the agency $240,000 as part of the Domestic Violence Housing First project, which is based on a successful model adopted in Washington state. DVS is one of 65 agencies in California that were selected to receive these grants.
The funds will be used to support field-deployed mobile housing advocates who connect clients (shelter residents and nonresident survivors) with housing opportunities and provide access to flexible funding to support rental assistance, move-in costs and deposits, and children’s needs. The initial funding is for 12 months with an opportunity to reapply for three additional years.
Further, DVS was selected to receive $385,000 from a pool of $9.6 million in funding from the Homeless Emergency Assistance Program that was available to the county through the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department’s Continuum of Care Program. These funds are administered through county Housing and Community Development over 30 months. DVS plans to deploy funding to address two major challenges faced by domestic violence survivors: affordable child care, and job and life skills development.
Together the two contracts could provide more than $1.5 million of financial and case management support for domestic violence survivors across the county over the course of the next four years.
