"As soon as we moved into this house, you think you can do whatever you want. You are my wife and I'm telling you what you can do and what you can't do. This kind of statement is typical of what a battered woman knows to be the only truth in her home. Domestic violence is on the rise and is one of the leading causes of homelessness among women in today's society. Rather than approaching domestic violence as a direct cause of homelessness, one might hope to understand how such violence might contribute to creating the circumstances that might make a woman more likely to end up homeless. Domestic violence and poverty can intersect with other issues to produce circumstances that often leave women with no choice but to seek short-term temporary shelter and therefore remain in insecure housing. Homelessness is defined as a person who does not have fixed, regular housing, and an adequate overnight residence, and has a primary nighttime residence that is:A) A supervised shelter operated by public or private services designed to provide temporary accommodation.B) An establishment that provides temporary residence to persons intended to be institutionalizedC) A public or private establishment place not designed for, or customarily used as, a regular sleeping place for human beings. (Stewart B. McKinney Act, 42 USC; 11301, et seq. (1994). According to the McKinney Act (1994), this definition generally includes those persons facing imminent eviction form their current form of shelter. Domestic Violence , or beating, is the establishment of control and fear in a relationship through violence and other forms of abuse. The abuser uses acts of violence and a range of behaviors, including intimidation. , threats, psychological violence, a...... middle of paper ......ty to increase the likelihood of women becoming homeless Female single-parent families increased from 23.7% of all. poor families in 1960 to 52.6% of all poor families by the mid-1990s. (Hagen, 1994). , it is increasingly important that research focuses on the unique sets of issues and problems that women's homelessness presents. Bibliography: 1.) Somers, Amy. Homeless domestic violence survivors: A national perspective. 1992.2.) National Research Council. Understanding Violence Against Women, Washington, DC: National Academy of Press. 1996.3.) Alexander, J. (May 30, 1999). Homeless women blame domestic violence. BBC News, p. C3.4.) Hagen, J. (1996). Gender and homelessness. Social Work 32 (July/August). 312-316.