Iowa City’s Domestic Violence Intervention Program, or DVIP, is working to combat domestic violence-related homicides through a six-unit affordable housing complex planned to open in spring 2026, funded by a $2.5 million grant received earlier this fall.

However, DVIP advocates worry the pace at which the program can develop reliable solutions in partnership with the City of Iowa City is not enough to protect survivors. 

The decision to develop the new complex comes after a recent  report by the Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence found that 88 domestic violence-related homicides had occurred in Iowa from fiscal year 2022 to 2024.

Conducted by the statewide nonprofit network advocating for policies to prevent and end domestic violence in Iowa, the report highlighted a 52 percent increase in domestic-violence-related homicides over three years. The authors of the report stated gun violence and affordable housing issues could be the leading factors.

Lindsay Pingel, director of community engagement at the Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence, said residents in affordable housing are more likely to escape domestic violence. 

According to the National Network to End Domestic Violence, 57 percent of unsheltered women report domestic violence as the immediate cause of their homelessness. 

“When we talk about housing, it really is the foundation for safety as a whole,” Pingel said. “Without access to affordable, stable housing, survivors of domestic violence are often forced to choose between potentially staying with a person who harms them or facing homelessness.”

RELATED: DVIP continues to serve Iowans as domestic violence homicides reaches highest point in three years

Pingel said the problem of affordable housing is a nationwide issue, but even for those who are able to secure an affordable home, there are questions to be asked about financial abuse.

“We see a lot of times that survivors have been impacted by economic abuse in cases of not being able to access their paycheck,” she said. “And if they’re working, a person who harms them has sometimes taken credit cards or loans out in their name.”

Pingel said more funding from the state and federal government can help survivors leave unsafe domestic situations. 

She said the coalition asks for $10 million per year from the state for operational costs, helping to pay employees. The federal dollars go directly to survivors in a variety of ways.

“It could be through motel and hotel stays, it could be helping with transportation. It could be helping with a variety of things,” she said. “Every survivor’s needs are different, but federal dollars directly impact the services that survivors can access.”

According to the Iowa Department of Justice, federal funding for Iowa Victim Assistance has dropped from nearly $35 million in fiscal year 2018 to approximately $17.5 million in fiscal year 2024.

Pingel said while the coalition continues to look at other states to model how to deal with domestic violence, Iowa is already an exemplary leader.

She said in 2012, the Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence shifted from a shelter-based model to a mobile advocacy model, marking a national first of focusing on meeting survivors where they are instead of requiring them to come to shelters.

“Iowa is actually a state that has been looked at for well over a decade of what serving survivors looks like and being a model that other states and coalitions, and programs want to replicate,” she said. 

The coalition has a network of 23 victim service provider agencies across Iowa, with one of those agencies being DVIP. 

Bronis Perteit, the director of Domestic Violence Services at DVIP, said affordable housing is the number one barrier for people who are abused being able to leave. 

“The majority of victims, they’re living in a situation where their incomes are impacted by their perpetrator,” she said. “Their ability to maintain their housing outside of their perpetrator or find new housing in Johnson County, outside of the perpetrator, is extremely difficult.”

Perteit said Iowa City is especially combative to affordable housing in its land and zoning requirements. 

“When it comes to building new projects, they typically don’t approve projects that are over 15 stories high,” she said. “Our communities don’t like high-density projects.”

Delaney Dixon, assistant executive director at DVIP & RVAP of Iowa, said Iowa City being a college town poses a problem for survivors struggling to find affordable housing. 

“You’re competing with college students who oftentimes have the ability to pay those rents, either because they double up with their roommates or their parents,” she said. “ This creates fewer exit options for survivors.”

Dixon said, although DVIP & RVAP of Iowa are actively working with the city on affordable housing projects designed to help survivors escape abusive situations, the demand for affordable housing outweighs their resources.

“It does not make a dent ultimately into the higher need that is required in order to remove this as a barrier,” she said. “It’s a barrier across the nation in regards to people making the decision to stay in abusive relationships because housing costs and rental cost burden is very real for a lot of folks.”

Dixon said beyond affordable housing, domestic violence survivors would benefit long term from shifting as a society away from victim blaming. 

“Here in Johnson County, there’s a lot of discussion,” she said. “I think we have a DVIP forward-thinking county attorney and a DVIP forward-thinking sheriff in Johnson County. They are supporters of DVIP & RVAP of Iowa, and don’t shy away from recognizing domestic violence as a crime.”