Dear Editor,
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a public health crisis affecting 1 in 3 women globally, and it is costing your community.
The lifetime economic burden of domestic violence among the U.S. population is 3.6 trillion, with the U.S. government paying an estimated 1.3 trillion of this cost. Where is this money going?
Medical costs, legal fees, policing, incarceration, destruction of property, lost productivity, mental health care, child protective services, housing instability, and end-of-life costs.
Where is this money coming from?
Taxpayers.
In fact, 3.6 trillion dollars is a conservative estimate. This number grows exponentially when you consider the uncountable costs for women and children, including the long-term psychological and economic impacts of abuse.
Providing secure housing for women and children is a critical step in safety planning. Women cannot get back on their feet — maintain a job, connect with community resources, access legal, employment, medical, and mental health services — until they have addressed housing stability.
Domestic violence shelters help women access stable housing, critical medical care, and employment resources. In turn, these services help reduce lost productivity, which accounted for $227 million in losses in Ohio in 2024.
The Ohio Domestic Violence Network (ODVN) connects more than 50 shelters throughout the state.
In 2021, these member shelters provided services to more than 80,000 survivors and their children, including safe housing for more than 9,000 citizens.
If you were to calculate the socioeconomic impact of shelters, you might be surprised to find that your local domestic violence shelter saves your community thousands of dollars every year.
In Ohio, it costs approximately $4,000 to provide a survivor with short-term safe housing. Without safe housing, women are at increased risk for continued abuse and additional medical and legal expenses, increasing the average cost to more than $10,000 per survivor, per incident.
By providing emergency housing, shelters reduce the risk of revictimization and save communities more than $6,000 for every survivor they serve. A recent cost-benefit analysis conducted by ODVN found that, in emergency housing services alone, shelters saved the state an estimated $32 million.
Simply looking at short-term savings, domestic violence shelters have a positive return on investment.
It is clear that domestic violence shelters do a lot of good, and they are also a good deal. So, why are we not prioritizing funding for these services?
Contrary to the findings of the cost-benefit analysis, the Department of Justice has proposed budget cuts to programs that fund domestic violence shelters. Recent federal funding cuts have impacted shelters’ ability to serve their communities.
A shelter in Columbus, the only domestic violence shelter in Franklin County, is at risk of halving its housing capacity because of funding cuts. These losses impact women, children, and cost the larger community more than we can quantify.
It is clear that we cannot afford to stop funding domestic violence services.Economic Impact and Social Return on Investment reports are publicly available from the Ohio Domestic Violence Network (https://www.odvn.org/)
Elle Bader-Gregory
Gambier, Ohio