Austin’s support of a housing development called The Sasha recently received $1 million to build a 60-unit housing development. The development will support human trafficking victim and children fleeing domestic violence or sexual assault situations.
The SAFE Alliance is heading up the project.
Dr. Pierre Berastaín, CEO of the SAFE Alliance, and Sydney Da Costa, the VAWA (Violence Against Women Act) coordinator for the SAFE Alliance, joined the Standard to discuss the new project. Listen to the interview in the player above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: So the SAFE Alliance received this federal funding recently. Can you speak to the importance of the housing development of this sort?
Pierre Berastaín: So the Safe Alliance has, for quite a long time, understood the intersection between housing and domestic violence and the importance of providing safe housing for survivors of domestic sexual violence and sex trafficking.
The SAFE Alliance envisioned this particular development for Sasha, but another one is opening this year called the Lancaster, here in Austin, for survivors. Both developments are 60 units that are specifically designed for permanent and transitional supportive housing for survivors of domestic sexual violence and sex trafficking and their children.
The importance of this is that it boils down to survivors. Number one request, oftentimes, is for safe housing.
The research backs this up in terms of the benefits of housing. In one randomized study, we saw that there was a decrease of 37 percent in emergency department visits for people who were in permanent supportive housing. There was a 24% decrease in hospitalizations. When you look at criminal justice involvement as well in studies, you see a decrease in arrests and jail time.
So there is just more wraparound support for survivors when they have supportive housing, and that is really critical whenever we’re looking at the services that we must provide in our community for the most vulnerable.
As the CEO of the SAFE Alliance, with your background of experience, how did this development come to fruition?
Pierre Berastaín: This was a little bit before my time, but it was done by the visionary board during COVID and by Julia Spann, who was the CEO at the time. What was happening at the time, is we had COVID and quite a bit of money — federal funds and a lot of kind of investment in the infrastructure of both public health and public safety for folks.
The vision at the time — in partnership with the city, with the county, with our board, and our leadership team at the SAFE Alliance — was how can we leverage federal funds, state bonds, county money, and low-income tax credits to create housing for survivors in a way that is survivor-centered, community-centered and puts the experiences of survivors at the center, and so this came about through that kind of visioning process.
One of the most beautiful things I think that happened in that process is that from the very beginning, we are a very survivor-led and survivor-focused organization. So we brought survivors into the design process, and they — through listening groups, through listening sessions — informed the architects, informed us about what would make this a survivor-focused, trauma-informed housing development.
That’s just one of the beautiful things in terms of the process of this project.
Sydney, as someone who works in the housing systems access program specifically as it pertains to the Violence Against Women Act, what exactly is your role regarding survivors?
Sydney Da Costa: So my role is working with survivors to ensure, first and foremost, that they know what their rights are under the Violence Against Women Act. It is a very broad law that provides a lot of support for survivors and a lot of housing protections. So first and foremost, making sure survivors know what their protections are.
Secondly, I work with the survivors to help them relocate to safe housing. They experience abuse in their housing unit. I help them with that relocation to get them somewhere where they feel safe and secure in housing.
Another part of my role is also providing training amongst the community. So I go out to different agencies, either virtually or in person, to train on what the Violence Against Women Act is so that way they can support survivors they’re working with, with transferring or just being in a safe housing unit.
Before the Sasha development, was it difficult to house survivors?
Sydney Da Costa: I would say absolutely. There’s, I wouldn’t say “wait list,” but “by-name list” as survivors are going through a coordinated assessment to get into safe housing. But unfortunately there’s a lot of survivors that are needing housing and not a whole lot of housing available.
So with this opportunity of the Sasha and the Lancaster, it’s going to open up so much more housing support. So hopefully a lot of survivors are going to be reduced from their likelihood of experiencing homelessness.
There are people who are maybe in danger but too scared to ask for help. Maybe both of you can speak to this, but I’m curious: What is the protocol when dealing with that kind of situation?
Pierre Berastaín: So we have our SAFEline that I always encourage people to reach out to. A lot of folks reach out through our SAFEline, and the number one request we get is for housing.
Through our SAFEline, people forget sometimes that they can access over 20 programs — an ecosystem of programs ranging from supports for children, from counseling and therapy, to therapeutic services.
If they have involvement with, for example, child protective services, we have a program that works with a family and, in most cases, prevents the removal from children because the family’s working with SAFE Alliance. We have legal representation, and we have emergency shelter and all the forms of housing that are available for survivors.
So the best way to access those services is by calling our SAFEline. That is 512-267-SAFE. So 512-267-7233.
All of that information can be accessed on our website, safeaustin.org.
Texas Standard: “The Sasha” is also going to be providing counseling, legal assistance, children’s services, a lot of what you just mentioned as well. Can you speak to the importance of these services in helping survivors get past these situations?
Dr.Pierre Berastaín: I mean, what we know is what several systematic reviews have indicated for decades, and what we’ve known for decades. Which is housing alone- just providing housing doesn’t reliably improve the general mental health and well-being of survivors.
Some programming evaluations report improvements in trauma symptoms, mental illness symptoms, and substance use. I’m thinking here of an independent evaluation in a different city that found reductions in all of those three categories that I mention. Alongside 80 and 90 percent housing retention for those survivors who received housing.
This is why housing for survivors has to be accompanied by consistent treatment, trauma-informed care, legal services, and right child support, because on its own, housing isn’t enough.
