PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Heaven Berhane, Project Director of RISE Project at Center for Justice Innovation
2:44:58
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159 sec
Heaven Berhane, Project Director of the RISE Project at the Center for Justice Innovation, testifies about the increasing instances of domestic violence homicides in New York City and the challenges faced by survivors in the shelter system. She emphasizes the need for expanded services and highlights the difficulties survivors encounter when seeking refuge.
- Domestic violence homicides in New York increased by nearly 15% from 2021 to 2022, with 71 cases reported in 2022.
- Over 40% of families in the Department of Homeland Services have experienced domestic violence.
- The RISE Project focuses on transforming responses to partner violence, particularly at the intersection with gun violence.
Heaven Berhane
2:44:58
Good afternoon, Cheris Ayala, and Lewis and his team members of the council.
2:45:01
Thank you guys so much.
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My name is Kevin Bohana, and I actually serve as the project director of the RISE Project at the Center for Justice Innovation.
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At RISE, we transform responses to its partner violence focusing on the Intersection for gun violence.
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And so what we've seen is that over the past few years, the instances of domestic violence, as we've heard today, homicides have been increasing.
2:45:23
So we know that there have been 71 domestic violence homicides in New York in 2022, and up nearly 15% from the year before.
2:45:30
So this is a very important issue, and I'm glad that we're having this conversation today.
2:45:33
But in addition to that, the effects of domestic violence trickle down through generations, creating cycles of violence and trauma within marginalized communities.
2:45:40
With over 40% of all families in the Department of Homeland Services, Having experienced DV, it is important that we expand services for this vulnerable community.
2:45:49
Often people experiencing domestic violence, as we heard from different survivors here today and different agencies, have to leave their places, they consider home for their safety, and do not always have the means to afford places to live.
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This often results in immediate need to seek shelter.
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Many survivors that we work with report feeling unsafe and shelter, fleeing one dangerous situation from another.
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While they're in crisis, they're navigating the system, just to find themselves in another crisis, in another dangerous situations.
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Some survivors, as we've we heard today, do have past victimizations in shelters, which discourage them from leaving their current situation.
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And then further, the scarcity of beds in need for victims to transition to store their belongings in domestic violence shelters, intensifies the challenges at survivors, and their children encounter when seeking refuge.
2:46:35
Recently, the RISE Project, we work with a client who was forced to leave her partner related to a DV situation.
2:46:40
And while she was navigating, we were supporting her with Sisters in purple, another DV organization.
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We came across the challenge of she couldn't be able to bring her stuff.
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And for her, that was an important thing, right, to be able to have your stuff.
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When you're leaving a situation, you wanna feel a sense of safety, a sense of normalcy.
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And so we had to what we did as a Rice project is we supported her with safety planning.
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Transportation, and we identified storage that we could pay for to pay for her stuff so that she could feel a sense of stability and safety as she went into the shelter system.
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But these are things that we don't want to have to people to navigate through when they're going to the shelter system.
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Don't wanna have to be thinking about these things.
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You wanna find safety.
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And in finding them safety, it helps to ensure that people, lives are saved, right, and that we don't lose lives because we know that if they have to go back to their their homes, right, and there's a gun in the home, five times more likely that this woman, particularly women and black women, will be killed.
2:47:29
So I thank you so much for you guys, for having us be here today to testify and speak on behalf of this very vulnerable population.
