Women veterans are being placed in HUD-VASH housing environments that are unsafe, poorly supervised, and structurally unprepared to manage high-risk behavior. This is not a personal failure of individual veterans. It is a systemic failure of oversight, accountability, and prevention.

HUD-VASH serves veterans with complex trauma histories, including PTSD, MST, severe mental health injuries, and documented behavioral risk factors. Yet the program currently lacks mandatory safety infrastructure to protect residents who are most vulnerable, particularly women veterans and those seeking stable, peaceful housing.

When safety concerns are raised, residents are often ignored, minimized, or told to “work it out,” even when warning signs are documented. Emergency transfers are delayed or denied. Threat assessment is inconsistent. Case notes fail to reflect the reality on the ground. The result is predictable: fear, re-traumatization, displacement, and preventable harm.

Housing is not just shelter. It is a duty of care.

We are calling on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and HUD-VASH leadership to immediately implement enforceable safety standards that prioritize prevention, accountability, and survivor protection.

 
We Demand the Following Actions
1. Establish a HUD-VASH Safety & Risk Accountability Task Force
A specialized, independent task force trained in trauma-informed threat assessment, community violence prevention, and gender-based safety. This task force must have authority to intervene, review incidents, and mandate corrective action when safety failures occur.

 
2. Implement Mandatory Community Safety Protocols
This is not about forced therapy. It is about responsibility.

Mandatory intake risk screenings for all HUD-VASH residents
Required de-escalation, conduct, and community safety training for high-risk residents
Clear intervention plans when warning signs or behavioral escalations are identified
Participation in safety protocols must be a condition of communal housing.

 
3. Guarantee Survivor-Centered Emergency Transfers
Women veterans reporting threats, intimidation, or unsafe living conditions must be granted immediate emergency transfers without prolonged investigation periods that place them at further risk.

Documentation must follow the survivor, not disappear into administrative delay.

 
4. Fund Independent Oversight and Advocacy
HUD-VASH must formally recognize and support independent survivor advocacy and monitoring organizations, including The Battle Queens Collective, to ensure transparency, accountability, and real-time support for women veterans navigating unsafe housing environments.

 
Why This Matters
Veterans should not have to choose between housing and safety.
Women veterans should not be retraumatized by the very systems meant to support them.
Preventable violence is not an acceptable cost of housing efficiency.

This petition is a call to act before another incident is ignored, another warning dismissed, or another veteran forced to flee for their safety.

Safe housing is not optional.
Accountability is not negotiable.

 
Call to Action
We urge HUD-VASH leadership, VA administrators, policymakers, and elected officials to act immediately. We urge the public to stand with women veterans and demand systems that protect rather than endanger.

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Support The Battle Queens Collective so this work does not end at awareness, but results in action.