“Homelessness is such a major issue in New York,” said Patrick Boyle, senior director at Enterprise Community Partners, one of the advocacy groups helping shelter residents and domestic violence survivors take part in the upcoming elections. “We want to make sure that people who have experienced homelessness are making their voices heard.”
Reilly Arena, left, and Ellen Murphy, right, of The League of Women Voters, set up a voter registration table in the lobby of a New Destiny housing building earlier this month. (Photo by Adi Talwar)
The lobby of New Destiny Housing’s shelter for domestic violence survivors was decorated with balloons during a recent Friday afternoon. A brightly-covered table dotted with pamphlets was set up to greet those entering.
This cheerful scene in the lobby had a purpose: to help tenants there to register to vote.
“We’re not telling people who to vote for,” said Gabriela Sandoval Requena, the director of policy and communications for New Destiny Housing. “We can just say, this is how you register … in a way that is safe, confidential for you.”
The effort was arranged by the Family Homelessness Coalition (FHC)* and the League of Women Voters. FHC, a network of housing and homeless services providers, has often been involved in political advocacy, including lobbying lawmakers in Albany and co-hosting a mayoral forum with City Limits back in April. But this voter registration drive was a first for the group.
“It’s always been a goal of our coalition to really empower people with lived experience with family homelessness,” said Patrick Boyle, senior director at Enterprise Community Partners, one of the co-conveners of the FHC.
“This idea came about in the context of all the elections happening right now, the mayoral elections, other elections happening at the state and local level,” Boyle added. “Homelessness is such a major issue in New York that we want to make sure that people who have experienced homelessness are making their voices heard.”
According to the Coalition for the Homeless, 70 percent of the 114,791 people who slept in the city’s homeless shelters in February were families with children. And in 2024 alone, nearly 12,000 individuals spent time in the domestic violence shelter system specifically, including 6,832 children.
Because of a time limit on stays in the city’s DV shelters, hundreds of people exit these facilities each year to enter the wider Department of Homeless Services’ system, as City Limits previously reported.
According to New Destiny Housing, more than 20 percent of families with kids in the DHS shelter system in 2023 cited domestic violence as their reason for experiencing homelessness, more than eviction.
“When [people] think of homelessness,” said Sandoval Requena, “they think of the individual that you see on the streets. But kids make up the biggest chunk of the population in shelters.”
“Because we have a right to shelter in New York, you don’t see families sleeping on the streets; they’re usually in the shelter system,” she added. “It’s just the fact that there is a strong safety net for them to have temporary respite, then it’s just not seen. It’s just not discussed, unfortunately.”
Nor are DV survivors often able to draw attention to their experiences. Fleeing domestic violence means rebuilding a life while trying to keep their abuser away; treating mental health issues, particularly PTSD, anxiety, and depression; and arranging for their children to attend school, sometimes miles from their new location.
Trissy is one of New Destiny Housing’s tenants who updated her address during the voter registration drive. She had delayed doing so, saying there was so much else to focus on after she and her children left her abuser. And casting a ballot meant she had to travel about an hour to her old neighborhood to vote there.
“As a survivor of domestic violence, once you make the decision to change your circumstance, a lot comes along with that, and it can be difficult to address basic tasks that were normal,” Trissy said. “And there’s a lot going on. Looking for an apartment and a job, things like that. I feel like it affects your mental health. I feel like sometimes new environments could be a little overwhelming as well.”
At the registration drive, advocates advised domestic violence survivors on how they can register confidentially. (Photo by Adi Talwar)
Warshana is another DV survivor who also did not immediately update her address because of how busy she was, and feeling unaware of what the issues were. “Voting will be the last thing you’re thinking about when you’re trying to go to housing and daycare and work,” she said.
Another factor is the fear that their abuser could discover where they live if they register with their new address. New York State law allows domestic violence survivors to request that their information be kept private, and the city recently passed legislation requiring local agencies to create and distribute guidance on how to do so.
For more information on applying for confidential voter registration, visit the state’s Board of Elections website here.
“Domestic violence survivors or current victims can keep their voter registration confidential,” said Kai Rosenthal, co-president of the League of Women Voters of the City of New York. “And it’s been made easier that they don’t have to affirm it. A judge doesn’t have to affirm it. They can just affirm on a form.”
Unhoused New Yorkers also don’t need a permanent residence to register to vote, advocates point out. They can use a street corner or even a park as their address, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless’ “You Don’t Need a Home to Vote” campaign.
Kadisha is the host of FHC’s podcast, “Hear Our Voices,” and is formerly homeless herself. While not a DV survivor, Kadisha said being unhoused in general can make New Yorkers feel their voices don’t matter.
“They don’t think about how our vote can really make a difference,” Kadisha said. “But if you put it in their mind that if you vote, you can make sure that your voices are heard no matter what part of your life you’re in at the time.”
Survivors who spoke with City Limits said issues important to them include affordable housing, education, and mental healthcare. Warshana believes if more DV survivors voted and created a bloc, they could make a difference when it comes to those issues.
“I feel like voting is a way of speaking for yourself, for you to not fade into the background,” said Trissy. “Even if it doesn’t go the way that you want it to go, at least you know that your opinion is important and that you contributed. You get to select the candidate based on values and concerns and things that [are] important to you.”
Kadisha agrees with that sentiment. “It might not be from that person who did the thing to you, the harm,” she said. “It’s like a way of kind of taking the power back, in a sense, to make sure that you can be heard and you can be seen.”
*Editor’s note: The Family Homelessness Coalition is among City Limits’ funders.
To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org. Want to republish this story? Find City Limits’ reprint policy here.
The post Getting the Vote Out in NYC Homeless & Domestic Violence Shelters appeared first on City Limits.
