This fall, survivors of domestic abuse and shelter providers pushed Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign the SAFE Shelter Act into law, which now awaits her signature. They say New York State’s domestic violence shelter system, originally designed to support women with children, has left an alarming gap in resources for single survivors of domestic violence, trafficking, and gender-based violence.
In 2023, the New York City Police Department responded to 245,018 domestic incident reports (DIRs), of which 116,878 were intimate partner-related and 89,223 were family-related.
In Midtown, Community Districts 4 and 5 reported intimate partner violence (IPV) felony assault rates 1.3 times higher than Manhattan as a whole…