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Law allowing battered women to live in public housing passes preliminary vote

A law allowing battered women leaving shelters to live in public housing for at least two years has passed a preliminary vote.

Battered woman. Illustration.
Photo: VGstockstudio/Shutterstock

The Knesset Plenum approved the Welfare Services Bill (Rights of Women Who Stayed in Battered Women's Shelters) (Amendment - Right to Public Housing), 2023, proposed by MK Pnina Tamano and a group of Knesset members, along with an attached proposal by MK Yasmin Friedman, in a preliminary vote today (Wednesday).

41 MKs supported the proposal, with no opposition, and it will be transferred to the Labor and Welfare Committee for discussion. If approved by the committee, it will then be put for a first vote, then sent back to committee, then sent to the Knesset for a second and third vote to become law. Its receiving unanimous support so early in the vote is a positive sign for its being passed into law.

The proposal seeks to establish that a woman who stayed in a battered women's shelter will be entitled, upon leaving the shelter, to public housing accommodation for a period of no less than two years, according to rules and conditions to be determined by the Minister.

The explanatory notes to the proposal state: "The Welfare Services Law (Rights of Women Who Stayed in Battered Women's Shelters), 2012, establishes the rights of a woman leaving a battered women's shelter. Among other things, the law stipulates that a woman leaving a shelter will receive an adjustment grant upon her departure. Additionally, the law addresses the possibility for such women to move to transitional housing intended to assist them in transitioning to independent living and as part of a tailored treatment program.

There are women leaving shelters for whom transitional housing is not suitable - whether because they would have to share the apartment with another woman or due to the location of the apartment and the shortage of available transitional housing units. Nevertheless, many of them cannot return to their homes and find themselves homeless upon leaving the shelter."

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