What We Do

Public policy is essential for changing the conditions that can lead to violence and for providing an effective response once it has occurred. We are committed to advancing solutions that promote safety and healing with a holistic approach. The Partnership has been instrumental in the passage, enactment, implementation and enforcement of strong, comprehensive legislation and public policies. Our work focuses on the following issue areas:

  • Funding Survivor Services and Prevention Efforts
  • Prevention
  • Housing & Homelessness
  • Economic Justice
  • Addressing the Criminal Legal System
  • Advocacy at the Intersections

Our Priorities

To get a full scope of our current priorities, please see our complete 2025 – 2026 Policy Agenda.

2025 – 2026 Policy Agenda

Questions about our policy work?

Please contact the Policy Team at policy@cpedv.org.

Current Work

Here are the issues we are currently working on and how you can support our policy advocacy.

Federal funding for victim services through the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) has declined dramatically over many years, and state action continues to be needed to prevent domestic violence service providers and other victim services from experiencing devastating across-the-board cuts to their funding that would directly impact survivors’ ability to access the safety and healing they need and deserve.

The Partnership is leading a statewide coalition to advance a budget request for backfill funding in 2026. Nearly 250 organizations representing service providers, district attorneys, local government, and other stakeholders have added their support to this request.

View the Organizations

Every survivor deserves to be able to access the services they need, without fear because of their immigration status. For this to be possible, safe spaces such as domestic violence shelters, rape crisis centers, homeless shelters, and courthouses must remain safe and free of threats. SB 841 (Susan Rubio) will establish protocols for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to enter these sensitive areas and needed certainty for advocates and staff to protect their clients. This bill will only grant entry to ICE personnel with approval from the director of the facility and if a written statement of purpose and a valid judicial warrant are presented with valid ICE identification. Moreover, it will limit ICE’s activities to those areas where clients are not present.

Toolkit for Victim Service Providers: Improving Outcomes for Survivors Experiencing Homelessness

Domestic violence and homelessness are deeply connected issues, and many domestic violence organizations work with their cities, counties, and Continuums of Care to ensure that survivors are appropriately included within local homelessness responses. This work is certainly not without its challenges, especially for programs who are just getting started in navigating these systems or struggling to overcome longstanding barriers. 

To assist domestic violence agencies with better understanding their Continuums of Care (CoC) systems and how to engage with them more effectively, the HOME Cohort has developed a toolkit. This toolkit has resources and information domestic violence Programs can use to navigate the process of initiating and/or strengthening partnerships with their local Continuums of Care. While the toolkit focuses on the CoCs, these concepts are also applicable to the work with other local entities who may be administering homelessness funding.

Access the toolkit

California Survivors’ Housing Rights Lease Addendum

This addendum was created by the HOME Cohort with input from housing and domestic violence service providers, state and national experts, legal advocates, and technical assistance providers working at the intersection of homeless and domestic violence. It can be added to any California tenant lease to explain the legal protections available to survivors residing in the state. Click here to access the addendum in English and click here to access the addendum in Spanish. (updated October 2024) If you require the addendum in any additional languages, please email home@cpedv.org.

Cohort 2022 Webinar Series

The HOME Cohort hosted a series of lunchtime conversations in February and March 2022 to support advocates in improving their practice and bolstering their capacity to work on housing and homelessness advocacy for survivors. Contact home@cpedv.org for the slides and recordings of these sessions.

Session Descriptions:

  • From the Ground, Up: HOME Cohort’s Survivor Housing Lease Addendum: Members of the HOME Cohort’s Advocacy Working Group shared the California survivor housing rights lease addendum (available in English and Spanish).
  • Overview of a New Toolkit to Support Domestic Violence Advocates in Engaging With Their Continuums of Care: The HOME Cohort has developed a toolkit for DV Programs to use as a guide for navigating the process of initiating and/or strengthening partnerships with local CoCs to improve outcomes for survivors experiencing homelessness.
  • Can We Talk? Changing the Narrative Around DV & Homelessness: Based on data compiled from a long term-project with Berkeley Media Studies Group & the HOME Cohort, this webinar helps advocates, agencies and community members change the narrative about the intersection of domestic violence and homelessness, and get inspired to craft stronger messaging with the goal of shifting public narrative around survivor homelessness.
  • I’m Here For It: Building Partnerships Between Cities and CBOs: This workshop explored different avenues community-based organizations (CBOs) can utilize to build and strengthen partnerships with their City to better serve survivors.
  • Use Your Data to Access More Funding for Your Housing Programs: Learn how to use data you already collect to highlight the ways homelessness and housing insecurity impacts survivors and learn how to effectively demonstrate how your organization’s work addresses survivors’ housing needs and how that work fits into the overall system for addressing homelessness.

Housing Opportunities Mean Everything (HOME) Cohort

About the Cohort

The HOME Cohort was founded in 2019 with support from the Women’s Foundation California to bring together organizations from throughout California to improve the safety and economic security of Californians who are experiencing homelessness due to domestic violence.

Consisting of 11 domestic violence agencies across the state, the cohort has developed tools and resources which support efforts to improve housing opportunities and outcomes for survivors of domestic violence. These resources include toolkits to address collaboration with local Continuums of Care and engagement of funders on this topic, as well as a California Survivors’ Housing Rights Lease Addendum.

The HOME Cohort currently Includes:

For more information about the cohort and its work, email home@cpedv.org.

Projects from the Cohort

Most recently, the cohort produced the documentary Housing Opportunities Mean Everything: Domestic Violence, Housing, and the Cost of Inaction. The 18-minute documentary explores the intersection of domestic violence and housing, and centers the voices of survivors and advocates while sharing the systemic challenges they face in pursuing safety, and the programs that make a life changing difference.

Watch the film here

Ways policymakers can currently support the housing needs of survivors:

  • Support the $100 million VOCA budget ask which funds many of the state’s domestic violence housing programs. Without funding, programs will close emergency shelter sites or reduce the number of housing units available, meaning that fewer DV survivors and their kids will have a safe place to sleep.
  • Support AB 1573 which will allow for prioritization of survivors in permanent supportive housing sites.
  • Support the ask for $500 million for the Homeless Housing Rescue Fund (HHRF) to be established, and would help mitigate the impacts on survivors of domestic violence and other at risk populations from federal cuts and policy changes.