Homeless Women:
From Violence to Violence

Jul 19, 2021

The Federal government’s policy toward COVID-19 pushed three million women from the labor force, with its lack of support to raise their kids as the shutdowns went on. Then, reports of domestic violence increased by double digits. For the women who build up the courage to leave, they usually run away with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

The available services are out of reach for many women seeking help. These agencies place several conditions before providing help. For example, transitional living facilities only help people who have been homeless for over a year. Battered women’s shelters only provide services after the woman has fled and filed a restraining order. Other shelters require these women to quit their jobs upon entry.

With no independent source of income, they flee from one form of violence at home only to face another on the streets. Now in the U.S., 57% of women who flee domestic violence end up on the streets. But they face violence on the streets. For example, according to one study, 40% of homeless women in Los Angeles faced some form of violence inflicted by their partners in the last year.

The capitalists exploit women’s unpaid labor in raising the next generations. Since they have established this system which makes women responsible, they are not about to cut into their profits to provide the necessities for women to truly escape this cycle of violence.

The exploitation of unpaid female labor, old as slavery, a form of slavery, can only be rooted out by revolution.