Access to Emergency Shelters and Transitional Housing for Battered Immigrants and Immigrant Victims of Crime (June 3, 2014) [pdf]

The National Immigrant Women’s Advocacy Project (NIWAP) conducted a nationwide survey of advocates, attorneys, government agencies, victim services, and members of the justice system, who were asked to answer a series of questions about immigrant clients (who had been victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, or human trafficking) who encountered, needed, or sought access to transitional housing services. This paper will provide an overview of survey participants and will focus on reporting, analyzing, and making policy recommendations regarding the data collected on transitional housing. The survey sought to discover what immigrant survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, and child abuse are being asked to prove to be able to gain access to transitional housing and whether they are allowed to prove eligibility using the “any credible evidence” standard of proof akin to evidentiary standards used for VAWA immigration cases.