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Relationships between Family Violence and Homelessness: Causes and Consequences across the Lifespan

Henry C. Hightower and Jill Hightower

In order to suggest some relationships between homelessness and family violence we begin with a definition of ‘homeless’ that applies to all ages, including those too young to leave home but who are perhaps homeless with their parent. Everyone, even the homeless, knows the meaning of ‘home.’ Home is where you are always welcome, where you are safe, and where you live alone or with the people closest to you, people you love and who love you. The true meanings of ‘home’ and ‘homelessness’ involve much more than shelter. For example, the United Nations definition of ‘the homeless’ includes people who lack “security of tenure” or “personal safety” in their dwellings. (www.unhchr.ch/htm/menu2/i2ecohou.htm)

Safety, security, and support are essential characteristics of a real home. Thus when a person is forced to remain in an abusive relationship because of dependence on their abuser for basic food, shelter, and other necessities, she or he is, in fact, homeless. If adequate income-support provisions and affordable housing were available, people in that position could leave their abusers. Nobody should have to choose between poverty and accepting abuse, but that choice is a reality for many, perhaps most, victims of family violence.

In the research on homelessness, a distinction is commonly made between those who are without shelter, or ‘sleeping rough,’ and those who are homeless but sheltered, for example in a hostel, charity, or on a friend’s couch. Neither of those categories fit a third group we regard as homeless because their nominal home does not provide safety, security, and support. There are people who are involuntarily constrained to live and be abused in their ‘family home,’ as their only alternative is living in circumstances of poverty with inadequate shelter or no shelter.

FAMILY VIOLENCE: A CAUSE AND CONSEQUENCE OF HOMELESSNESS

Our challenge in writing this essay is to organize a brief but comprehensive summary of what we know or believe are relationships between abuse and homelessness at different stages of life. Heise, Pitanguy, and Germain’s well-known typology of health burdens of abuse across the life cycle (1994, 5) suggests a life-cycle table format. Our thumbnail sketch of risk factors, causes, and consequences shows that there is much overlap between abuse and homelessness. (See chart on page 10.)

There are no numbers or percentages associated with the life-cycle stages, because sampling difficulties, definitional issues, and other methodological problems make demographic estimates of the homeless population quite unreliable. But many adults perceive an association between youth and homelessness, perhaps because of the visibility of ‘street youth.’ A generation ago, when homelessness was much less common, it was associated with a ‘skid road’ population of unemployable, alcoholic men of middle age but appearing older. No doubt some of them had been abused as children. Unattached adult males do not appear in our survey because a man is usually the economically dominant partner, and when there is a separation because of family violence, usually the woman has to leave.

ACROSS THE LIFESPAN

Childhood

Obviously, infants and young children do not choose to leave or stay in abusive homes; rather parents, usually mothers, make those decisions and stay with their children. But there are risks and consequences at all ages, even prenatal, of staying or of leaving. A mother who leaves with an elementary- or younger-age child runs risks of poverty and homelessness for herself and her child. Single parents are disadvantaged in the housing market, meaning they pay expensive rents or accept less satisfactory dwellings, often in illegal suites. In comparison to single women or men, single parents have child-care expenses, are less competitive in the job market than peers without children, and must spend more on nutrition, clothes, medications, and supplies. If on social assistance, a mother with a three-year-old child would receive 60 percent of a minimal healthy income in the Lower Mainland. (Long and Goldberg, 2002) Poverty is a documented risk factor for health, particularly for young children, because of compromises in nutrition, medication, heat, and other environ-mental factors.

Problems with landlords, attempts to improve on poor accommodations or bad neighbourhoods, and increases in income are good reasons for moving. Financial reverses, needed repairs to a dwelling, or a landlord’s decisions to sell or rent to a relative, can also force tenants to move. In urban, low-rent housing markets, moving generally means that children change schools and leave playmates behind. Moving frequently increases risks of children not developing good social and emotional skills, not reaching their educational potential in school, and becoming ineligible for post-secondary education. Residential instability is a characteristic of children in poverty, even if they are never homeless. The prospects are surely even bleaker for children who are homeless. In addition to health, educational, and emotional deficits as children, consequences of home-lessness and poverty may appear when the children reach adolescence or later in life.

Lack of financial resources or affordable housing forces many women to stay with or return to abusive partners. (Browne and Bassuk, 1997) Poverty is both a cause of homelessness and a common consequence of leaving an abusive relationship. Mothers choosing to stay with their abusers often do so ‘for the sake of the children.’ Those children may not be exposed to poverty, but they will almost certainly witness ongoing family violence. Survey data suggest that a large proportion of adults who are abusers witnessed repeated abuse, usually of their mothers, while they were children. (Statistics Canada, 1994)

While the child poverty that is a common consequence of mothers leaving abusers is tragic, so too are the less well-documented, longer-term consequences of children living through adolescence in abusive homes.

Youth

A longitudinal study of homeless young people in Melbourne and Los Angeles focused on the relationship between homelessness and family violence using a variety of survey and interview techniques. In summary, the findings were as follows:

“First, family violence is an important factor as a reason for young people leaving home. However, not all young people make the decision to leave home themselves. While some clearly express their right to live in a safe home environment, others equally clearly remain in violent family environments until forced to leave by parents or stepparents. Surprisingly, almost all violence reported related to physical assault rather than sexual violence. While this may be an accurate account, there may have been under-reporting of sexual assault by these young people because of reluctance to disclose this issue. As expected, the numbers of young women experiencing violence far exceeded those of young men, with violence from a variety of sources, including brothers. We may have expected that this violence would have been perpetrated by males. In fact a surprisingly large number of mothers and step-mothers were violent, especially towards their daughters.” (Edwards et al, 2004)

Adults

The situation of mothers rearing children is a product of the dual dis-advantages of being less competitive in the job market because of their child-care priorities, and solely responsible for providing the necessities of life for their children and themselves. Most adults who are in family relationships but without dependent children are presumably free to leave their relation-ships and find jobs and housing as single adults, until they are no longer com-petitive in the job market because of age. The exceptions, notably people with physical, mental, immigration-status, or English-language challenges, are not correlated with life stages.

We have shown elsewhere (Hightower, Smith, and Hightower, 2001, 2003) how economic dependence begins to limit the options of abused women starting at about 50 years of age, and how the increasing vulner-ability of men and women as they become middle aged makes living without permanent shelter an increasingly implausible option.

A woman in her 50s who was raised in a middle-class family, married a successful professional or businessman, and raised their children, is probably at about the same risk of family violence as other married women. Perhaps she stayed in an abusive relationship for the sake of the children. If she did not have significant employment experience during the 15 to 20 years that her children were young, she is probably unemployable, or only able to find employment at or near minimum wage. Her life experience has probably not given her survival skills for living homeless. She faces a choice between remaining economically secure in an abusive relationship, or accepting poverty and risk being without shelter. It is a choice between disaster and devastation. Paradoxically, her circum-stances will improve when she becomes 65 years of age, and eligible for her own OAS, GIS, and SAFER. We have heard anecdotes of wives planning to walk out on abusive husbands on their sixty-fifth birthday. While waiting, they are at risk for substance abuse and psychological damage, as well as physical injury.

Older Age

Apart from pension eligibility and reduced transit fares, there is little to distinguish the situations of middle-aged and elderly people in terms of homelessness and family violence. Abused older women are often women who were abused in the same way when they were younger. Older women are more likely to be widowed, and some start new relationships, some of which become abusive. Other widows enjoy the freedoms of being single. Relatives, primarily children, may also abuse widows.

Adult children who have lived away from their parents for years sometimes return to parents’ homes, and sometimes the reason is that they are in trouble, usually financial, or sometimes due to alcohol or drug dependence. Sometimes the parents lose their homes, either by giving the children more than they can afford, or as a consequence of fraud and financial abuse by children. In such situations there is certainly an emotional burden on the parent, and the financial abuse may be accompanied by psychological and physical abuse and result in homelessness.

CONCLUSION

Homelessness and family violence are related in many ways. Each can be a cause of the other, and each can be a consequence of the other. They have some very similar consequences, as illustrated by the situation of a mother choosing whether to raise her child in poverty or in an abusive home, aware that poor self-esteem is common among children in poverty, and poor self-esteem and under-performing in school is common among children who witness abuse in their homes. Homelessness and family violence are interrelated. Both have equally tragic consequences when they occur, at any time of life.

But we cannot stop with these depressing conclusions. Researchers, practitioners, and activists must go on doing what they can to raise awareness, improve knowledge, practice prevention, stop violence, and rehabilitate victims. Success stories offer the courage to continue. Here is the way one woman phrased her message of encouragement:

“I was married 50 years until I divorced him five years ago. I had never lived alone. He was a rigid, controlling man. It is good being on my own. Sometimes I feel so guilty for being so happy as I am now.” (Hightower, Smith, and Hightower, 2001: 33)

Jill Hightower, MA, retired as the Executive Director of the BC Institute Against Family Violence in 1998, and continues to serve on the Institute’s board of directors. Jill has published and presented her research at international, national, and regional conferences and community forums, and was recognized with a Senior Service Award for 2003 by the SFU Gerontology Research Centre. She also serves as a public member of the Inquiry Committee of the BC College of Psychologists.

Before retirement, Dr. Henry Hightower practiced and taught community, social, and regional planning, including 22 years at UBC. He studied sociology at the London School of Economics and planning at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He serves on the boards of the BC Coalition to Eliminate Abuse of Seniors and the BC Foundation to Support Community Response to Adult Abuse and Neglect.

REFERENCES

Browne, A, and Bassuk, S (1997) “Intimate Violence in the Lives of Homeless and Poor Housed Women: Prevalence and Patterns in an Ethnically Diverse Sample,” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 67(2): 261-278, April 1997.

Browne, A (1998) “Responding to the Needs of Low Income and Homeless Women Who are Survivors of Family Violence,” Journal of American Medical Association, 53(2): 57-64, Spring 1998.

Edwards, J, Mallett, S, Keys, D, and Rosenthal, D (2004) Project i, Melbourne University. Available online at www.parity.infoxchange.net.au/group/noticeboard/items/20041227019b.shtml.

Heise, LL, Pitanguy, J, and Germain, A (1994) Violence Against Women: The Hidden Health Burden, Washington: World Bank (Discussion Paper 255)

Hightower, J, Smith, MJ, and Hightower,
HC (2001) Silent and Invisible: A report on abuse and violence in the lives of older women in British Columbian and Yukon, Vancouver: BC/Yukon Society of Transition Houses.

Hightower, HC, Smith, MJ (Greta), and Hightower, J (2003) Out Of Sight, Out of Mind: The Plight of Seniors and Homelessness, New Westminster, BC: Seniors Housing Information Program. Available online at www.hvl.ihpr.ubc.ca/pdf/SHIP2003.pdf.

Long, A, Goldberg, M (2002) Falling Further Behind: A Comparison of Living Costs and Employment and Assistance Rates in British Columbia, Vancouver: SPARC BC. Available online at www.sparc.bc.ca/research/falling_further_behind.pdf

Neal, R, with Dancoste, M–J (2004) Poverty and Homelessness in Canada, Ottawa: NAPO The National Anti-Poverty Organization. Available online at
www.napo-onap.ca/en/resources/Voices_English_04232004.pdf.

Statistics Canada (2004) Violence Against Women Survey, Ottawa, Statistics Canada.