Financial abuse can cripple domestic violence victims. These California proposals aim to help
Sen. Dave Min, D-Irvine, introduced legislation Thursday to help survivors of domestic violence recover from the financial abuse that so often hinders them from establishing credit or getting shelter after fleeing their abusers.
The measure, Senate Bill 975, is one of four new bills that advocates hope will provide greater stability and financial security to individuals trying to make a fresh start. It would establish a way for victims of domestic violence, senior citizens and foster youth to clear their credit reports of debts they were coerced into making or that were made without their knowledge.
Krista Colon, the public policy director for the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence, said survivors often end up with bad credit, unable to get a home or to make ends meet for themselves and for any children they may have.
“Economic abuse, in some form or fashion, happens in about 99% of domestic violence cases,” Colon said. “For survivors of domestic violence, financial and economic concerns are one of the top reasons that survivors either stay in abusive relationships or return to them.”
Los Angeles-based victim services agency FreeFrom estimates that a victim of domestic abuse will amass an average of $15,936 of debt annually without their knowledge or consent. Often, after escaping, survivors face collections for debts they didn’t know were in their name or for loans they took out under threat of violence.
The Min bill would allow victims to use evidence such as police reports, identity theft reports from the Federal Trade Commission and relevant court orders to establish that they are not responsible for the debts made in their name. It also would establish that survivors can work with creditors outside the court, if that is preferred by both parties, to ensure that debts are ultimately collected from the appropriate person
In a 48-page report that aims to provide a blueprint for tackling the impact of domestic violence, the Little Hoover Commission last year recommended that state leaders create a one-stop shop to assist survivors with issues involving finances and identity theft.
In the Little Hoover report, Amy Durrence, FreeFrom’s director of law and policy, recalled trying to help a survivor she called only by her first name, Maxine, escape an abusive relationship.
Maxine had three children. Her boyfriend prevented her from working and kept tight control over all family resources, Durrence said.
“This left Maxine with hardly any money and no way to make an income,” she said. “While we were successful in getting Maxine and her kids a temporary restraining order, they had no place to go, no money to pay for necessities,and no job prospects.”
It’s virtually impossible for survivors in such situations to make things work, Durrence told the commission, and that is why they go back to abusive partners.
Other legislation being introduced this session is aimed at ensuring local and state government agencies are counting survivors among the unhoused and ensuring that, if they have homes, they have the protections needed to keep them.
Sen. Susan Rubio, D-Baldwin Park, introduced Senate Bill 914 a week ago to ensure domestic violence survivors and unaccompanied women are included when local agencies do their planning and goals for assisting people experiencing homelessness.
In this case, regulations intended to protect survivors are keeping them from being counted and adequately served, Colon said. A federal law prohibits victim services providers from entering identifying information on survivors into the federal and state databases that are used to measure the number of unsheltered people.
In the U.S., roughly 57% of women living without housing cited domestic violence as the immediate cause of their homelessness, according to studies.
Rubio’s bill would require any government agency that gets state funding to address homelessness to also serve unaccompanied women and survivors of domestic violence. It also would require the California Interagency Council on Homelessness to set goals on inclusion and measuring progress.
The measure is co-sponsored by the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence, Los Angeles’ Downtown Women’s Center and San Pedro-based Rainbow Services.
Assemblywoman Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, D-Winters is attempting to strengthen and remove barriers to the state’s Safe at Home Program with the introduction of Assembly Bill 1726.
The Safe at Home Program ensures that victims of domestic abuse and others facing threats to their lives do not have to share the street address where they live. Instead, the California Secretary of State provides them with an address where they can receive mail.
Their mail gets collected and then redirected to them, and they can use the address when applying for a driver’s license or other state, county or city services. The goal is to keep a residential addresses away from people who might want to harm participants.
In 2020, 4,858 people used the Safe at Home Program. AB 1726 would make a number of changes to the existing law, including:
- Removing red tape that puts up barriers to getting into the program. Existing state law requires that participants list an additional legal parent for their children, but in some cases, there is no other legal parent.
- Clarifying that participation in the program does not indicate that children are at risk. In the past, participation has been used against participants in custody or dependency case proceedings.
- Prohibiting any person or entity from disclosing a participant’s home address or contact information.
- Giving participants more time to respond to court documents since they must be mailed to the Secretary of State’s office before they can be forwarded to participants.
In another effort to combat homelessness, Colon said the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence will be co-sponsoring a bill aimed at improving eviction protections for survivors.
“California does already have some eviction protections for survivors, but they’re rather limited,” she said. “They don’t apply if the abusive partners is also a tenant on the lease, so if... you’re both on the lease, those protections don’t apply. They don’t apply if the survivor ‘allows’ the abusive person to come back onto the property, which we know often happens in relationships, especially if there are children involved in custody or visitation exchanges that need to happen.”
The goal is to make trauma-informed changes in the laws that will reduce the risk of homelessness for survivors trying to keep a roof over their heads as they rebuild their lives, Colon said.
This story was originally published February 11, 2022 at 11:29 AM.
