Domestic violence is an epidemic in Washington, DC. In 2006, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) received 27,401 domestic-related crime calls--one every 19 minutes, including 11,053 calls to report domestic violence crimes (30 calls per day) and 16,348 calls to report family dispute crimes (45 calls per day). Reported cases of domestic violence have increased twenty-two (22) percent over the last three years. Alarmingly, sixty-two (62) percent of these reported cases occur in Wards 7 and 8 and impact indigent families without the resources to escape domestic violence. MSP primarily serves families from the Southeast quadrant. Eighty-nine (89) percent of residents at MSP's emergency shelter previously resided in Wards 7 or 8. Poverty and domestic violence are interconnected. Studies demonstrate that impoverished women experience high rates of violence by a male partner with some as high as 50% of women receiving welfare having experienced physical abuse at some point in their adult lives.1 The average monthly income of women was $522.00 in 2006 and the highest percentage of participants, 37%, the highest segment, had a 12th grade education. Poverty reduces options for battered women, including viable safety options and financial outlets. Women with greater resources are less likely to utilize domestic violence shelters and services, increasing the number of women with the fewest resources (i.e., low-income women, immigrant women, women who have been multiply-victimized as children and as adults) in the greatest need for services.