From Shelters to Social Housing – How to Construct a Housing Safety Network for Domestic Violence Victims

Date: August 10 – 11

The Garden of Hope Foundation has long noticed the insufficiency of emergency shelters and the need for mid-to-long term shelters. In 2012, we launched a service plan called Go the Second Mile, which deals with financial, housing, and relationship repairing issues. Services include employment assistance, economic assistance (including supplies provision), housing assistance (including mid-to-long-term shelter, independent accommodation, renting assistance, finding DV-friendly landlords/real estate agents), legal assistance, relationship advice, and so on. The purpose of providing these resources is to meet the needs of women trying to rebuild their lives and accompany them to gain independence.

In order to incorporate social housing and provide long-term support after women leave the shelters, the Garden of Hope Foundation has looked at shelters and housing in Taiwan and invited lecturers from countries with better social housing development to share their mid-to-long-term housing experiences. In this annual conference The Garden of Hope Foundation was honour to invite President TSAI, Ing-wen to give us the opening speech for this inspirational conference.