REPORT
Family Violence Council Report Fiscal Years 2018-2019
Addressing family violence during COVID-19
The Family Violence Council has prioritized recommendations that are focused specifically on the City’s response to COVID-19, which emerged in late 2019. The FVC would like to the following new recommendations that are direct reflection of learnings from the pandemic: 1. Request emergency funding for agencies engaged in prevention of and response to child abuse, domestic violence, and elder abuse to ensure that frontline staff are supported in response to COVID-19. 2. Increase awareness around family violence during COVID-19, including publishing culturally accessible education and resources for survivors of family violence, leveraging San Francisco’s alert system to provide resources, and asking public officials to highlight this increased need. Ensure that providers and first responders have the necessary tools and training to be able to assess family violence and provide resources to victims and those at risk. 3. Ensure that all City departments that are members of the Family Violence Council create a response plan to address and prevent family violence in disaster planning. Violence prevention plans might include public education and awareness, emergency data snapshots of both quantitative and qualitative data, plans to change how services are provided in response to disasters and policy recommendations based on emerging trends.This report is the ninth Family Violence in San Francisco report and covers the period between July 1, 2017 through June 30, 2019 (fiscal years 2018 and 2019). Data from more than 10 City public agencies and 27 community-based organizations has been included.
Overall Key Findings
This report elevates the following findings across all three forms of family violence. Key findings for each form of abuse is summarized in pages that follow.
- There are clear racial disparities across all three forms of family violence; reported family violence disproportionately impacts Black/African American and Latinx populations.
- Family violence disproportionately affects women and girls.
- The use of weapons, especially firearms, in domestic violence incidents is on the rise; there has been an increase in 911 calls concerning weapons and multiple homicides related to firearms. Between FY 2018 and FY 2019, there was a 44% increase in armed assailants with guns.
- There remains a significant need for shelter for survivors of family violence in San Francisco: four out of five clients are turned away from emergency shelter.