Note from Mai: In addition to the resources in the article, CORA is a San Mateo County-based agency that provides support for people affected by intimate partner violence. Their free 24/7 hotline is 800-300-1080. 

How to Shelter in Place if You Live With Domestic Abuse

By Michelle Wiley, Shannon Lin

Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom enacted a shelter-in-place order across California. The order, which limits the kinds of businesses and activities that are allowed, is meant to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and encourages people to stay inside their homes as much as possible.

But what do you do when home is a dangerous place?

For many survivors of domestic violence in California, sheltering in place can feel strangely familiar. Many survivors are targets of their abusers’ undivided attention — often controlling their every movement and isolating them from the outside world.

But Jill Zawisza, executive director of San Francisco-based nonprofit WOMAN, Inc. (Women Organized to Make Abuse Nonexistent), said that under normal circumstances, those experiencing abuse may have windows of time where they can leave the house and get a respite from their abuser.

"In your typical day, a survivor might be in a situation where they're in this cycle of violence," Zawisza said. "But they still need to go get their kids, maybe, or they still need to take their kid to school or they still need to go to work and run errands."

During those trips out of the house, survivors can call family members or service providers for support or shelter from the abuse.

But during a shelter-in-place order, those windows of time become much harder to come by.

"It kind of exacerbates the isolation and the options for a survivor to be able to get out of the house," Zawisza explained. "Certainly it's not impossible for a survivor to do that while there's a shelter-in-place order. It is just yet another obstacle in their way."

And while shelters are permitted to stay open under the shelter-in-place order, other services like crisis counseling and group therapy could be disrupted by the new rules.

Now, advocates are working to provide additional resources for people living in dangerous situations.

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