Our History

In March 2022, the Board of Directors and leadership of the National Alliance for Safe Housing (NASH) announced our official relaunch as the Safe Housing Alliance.

In 2015, we began as a national technical assistance and training project of the District Alliance for Safe Housing (DASH), a local safe housing organization in Washington, DC.

Our organization was established to ensure that survivors of domestic and sexual violence have access to a full range of housing options. While remarkable work is done by many homeless, housing, and victim services providers around the country to end the destructive impact of violence and homelessness, it is increasingly difficult to connect survivors to safe housing in the face of increasing demand and diminishing supply.

Throughout our history, we have worked to improve access to safe housing for survivors of violence and their families, especially those most adversely impacted by oppression and racial disparities, so that they don’t face homelessness or worse. We have enabled communities to provide better safety, stability, and value to all who live, work, or otherwise gather there.

Today, we are proud to continue and expand our work independently from DASH. Our new name, Safe Housing Alliance, celebrates taking our work to the next level of our mission. We are catalyzing a safe housing movement by ensuring that survivors of domestic and sexual violence have safe housing options across the country, through improved access, increased resources, and innovative solutions.

Our work will continue uninterrupted, including:

  • Expanding community education and training for professionals around violence, safe housing, and the COVID-19 pandemic;

  • Centering racial justice to address and change the gross disparities of people of color among survivors who face homelessness;

  • Organizing systems and community change to enhance coordination of safe housing for survivors and their families;

  • Facilitating online and peer-to-peer supports for flexible funding to enable and enhance emergency financial assistance to survivors to help them avoid homelessness; and,

  • Advocating at the national and federal level to ensure that survivors’ needs are included in housing, economic, and other policies adopted nationwide.

“Housing is a human right and safety is the foundation” said Safe Housing Alliance CEO Peg Hacskaylo. “The Safe Housing Alliance will work intensively to build that vision into a reality for everyone.”

If you are in danger, please call 911, a local hotline, or the U.S. National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 and TTY 1-800-787-3224. Avoid using a computer that could be accessed by a person who may cause harm, and learn more technology safety tips.

Please note that the Safe Housing Alliance is not a direct service provider and does not provide individual counseling, crisis response, housing advocacy, or legal services. We have compiled a brief list of resources for survivors here.