Housing Insecurity among Black Women Surviving Intimate Partner Violence during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Intersectional Qualitative Approach

BACKGROUND. To investigate housing experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic among Black women experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) who are also navigating racism, sexism, and classism. METHODS. From January to April 2021, we conducted in-depth interviews with 50 Black women experiencing IPV in the United States. Guided by intersectionality, a hybrid thematic and interpretive phenomenological analytic approach was used to identify sociostructural factors shaping housing insecurity. RESULTS. Our findings demonstrate the various ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic shaped Black women IPV survivors’ ability to obtain and sustain safe housing. Five themes were derived to capture factors contributing to housing experiences: challenges with separate and unequal neighborhoods; pandemic-related economic inequalities; economic abuse limitations; mental toll of eviction; and strategies to maintain housing. CONCLUSIONS. Obtaining and maintaining safe housing during the COVID-19 pandemic was difficult for Black women IPV survivors who were also navigating racism, sexism, and socioeconomic position. Structural-level interventions are needed to reduce the impact of these intersecting systems of oppression and power in order to facilitate the resources necessary for Black women IPV survivors to identify safe housing.