Sen. Gounardes: Vetoing My SAFE Shelter Act Leaves Survivors Out in the Cold This Holiday Season

New York State Senator Andrew Gounardes issued the following statement today after his SAFE Shelter Act was vetoed by Governor Kathy Hochul: 

“The decision to veto my SAFE Shelter Act leaves domestic violence survivors out in the cold this holiday season. Our top priority should be keeping New Yorkers safe, and that means ensuring domestic violence victims have a safe place to stay in their most vulnerable moment.  But our state's funding system is so flawed that if a shelter operator places a single person in a room with two beds, they lose half the revenue they need to cover rent, staffing and security. The result? Most single survivors aren't connected to shelter at all. That’s absolutely shameful, but it doesn’t have to be this way—this is a problem my SAFE Shelter Act can fix.”

Background:

The SAFE Shelter Act (S15A/A2583A) is designed to make it easier for thousands of survivors of domestic violence, sexual abuse, and human trafficking to access safe and stable temporary housing in a domestic shelter.

Most rooms in the DV emergency shelter system are designed to accommodate families of two, three, or more. Providers that place single survivors without children in rooms designed to house more than two people face significant, and potentially ruinous, financial consequences. As a result, survivors of domestic violence without children often struggle to find shelter, forcing them to stay in the homeless shelter system—which is not designed to meet their needs—or onto the streets. 

The Act would fix this flawed funding system by requiring the State to preserve the full reimbursement to providers who "downsize" a room configured for a family of two to accommodate a single victim, increasing system-wide capacity for single adults.

Safe Horizon operates the New York City Domestic Violence Hotline and receives nearly 90,000 domestic violence hotline calls per year and more than 40,000 domestic violence shelter requests annually on its 24-hour hotline. Each year, the largest population of individuals seeking domestic violence shelter is single adults with no children, and that number has increased year over year. 

In 2023, about 50% of callers seeking shelter placement were single adults with no children. Only 18% were linked to an available shelter space, compared to the 26% of callers who were families of two (typically a mother and one child) and had a 72% rate of being linked to an available shelter space.

Press Contact:

Billy Richling

Communications Director

State Senator Andrew Gounardes

billy@senatorgounardes.nyc

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