Violence in emergency shelters: what the law requires

It is the law requiring the State to have a protocol against violence inside the shelters set up for an emergency or disaster. What is most useful for someone in one fits in a sentence: every shelter must keep the Protocol available and post a visible notice about it. The rest of the law is the list of what that Protocol must contain, and that list is what tells you what to demand.

The law asks no requirements of the sheltered person: the obligations belong to the State and to those operating the shelters. Its application is broad on the personnel side: “The provisions established in this Act shall apply to all personnel providing services in the Shelters, including those serving as volunteers.” And it reaches every shelter set up for an emergency or disaster in Puerto Rico.

Information pending verification.

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: The shelter must have the Protocol and post notice of it

   It is the first thing you can ask for while inside, and the law writes it in a single sentence: “Every shelter shall keep the Protocol available and shall post in a place visible to the public a notice about it.” If there is no visible notice, that alone is a breach to point out.

2. 2

   Step 2: Reporting privately, and with immediate referral

   The law requires the Protocol to create the conditions for reporting without exposure. It requires “the creation of private spaces” and the processes so victims of violence in the shelters, “or witnesses of the events, may report and seek assistance confidentially.” And in the prevention part it requires developing “the procedures to receive and process complaints about intra- or extra-familial violence situations in the shelters, including, but not limited to, information on the agencies and organisations that provide services to violence victims in the geographic area where the shelter is located, and the mechanisms to refer the victim immediately.”

3. 3

   Step 3: Not coinciding with your aggressor

   It is the provision most searched for and we give it with its condition included, because that is how the law writes it. The Protocol shall establish the mechanisms “so that, to the extent possible, it is ensured that domestic violence victims do not coincide in the same shelter with their aggressors, sex offenders with their victims, and persons in the central protection registry with minors protected by the State.” “To the extent possible” is part of the text and we reproduce it rather than promise more than the law says.

4. 4

   Step 4: Whoever works in the shelter is vetted

   The law enumerates four verifications and they are worth knowing. The Protocol shall establish “the verification procedures for the persons who work or provide support in the shelters, including their criminal records, the minor protection registry, the sex offender registry or being respondents to protection orders.” And separately it requires mechanisms to identify, among those sheltering, persons registered as sex offenders, respondents to domestic violence protection orders or in the minor protection registry.

5. 5

   Step 5: Violence by staff is covered too

   It is a part often overlooked and the law names it expressly. The Protocol shall determine the security measures shelters must have “and shall establish the measures to prevent and avoid acts of violence by disaster responders, as well as by the personnel who administer, work and provide support in the shelters.” It also requires a code of conduct for that personnel and for volunteers “clearly indicating the prohibition of sexual harassment in any of its forms and the child protection policies.”

6. 6

   Step 6: Minors alone, older adults and people with disabilities

   The law requires a written norm for reporting, not an improvised judgement. The Protocol “shall establish clear norms for informing the Puerto Rico Police and the Department of the Family of situations where minors in the shelters are alone without the presence of their fathers, mothers, guardians or legal custodians, as well as of older adults and persons with disabilities who need assistance and have nobody supporting them.”

7. 7

   Step 7: Physical conditions: lighting, hygiene, privacy and play areas

   The law goes down to detail and that allows pointing at concrete breaches. The Protocol shall require “the establishment of safe play areas for minors, the supervision mechanisms, as well as guaranteeing there is no external access to those areas”; shall require “that potential shelters be inspected and that areas identified as unsafe or conducive to committing acts of violence be closed”; and shall require “the establishment of security policies, adequate lighting, adequate hygiene facilities, as well as privacy in the places meant for hygiene.”

8. 8

   Step 8: Accessibility: alternative formats and a sign language interpreter

   The law devotes a whole article to it and it is demandable on the spot. The Protocol and any information arising from its compliance “shall be available in alternative formats for blind or visually limited persons,” and the necessary reasonable accommodation shall be provided to the legally blind “so they may become aware of the rights that assist them.” And it adds: “The orientations and any information provided orally to the sheltered and to the general population as part of compliance with this Act must have a sign language interpreter for the benefit of deaf or hearing-limited persons, or the necessary reasonable accommodations shall be provided.”

9. 9

   Step 9: Who makes the Protocol and who gets trained

   The law empowers the Secretary of the Department of Public Safety to create and establish the Protocol, and grants powers to the Commissioner of the Bureau for Emergency Management and Disaster Administration, who may work jointly. The Protocol is promulgated under Act 38-2017. In addition, the law orders “establishing and requiring a compulsory initial training and annual professional development programme on the Protocol, both for shelter personnel and for support personnel, as well as Department personnel working in emergency cases, and requiring compliance with this training.” The competencies are developed together with Justice, Housing, Health, Family, the Women’s Advocate and the Ombudsman for Older Adults.

There is no prior procedure: inside a shelter, what the law lets you do is ask for the Protocol, which must be available, and look for the visible notice the shelter must post. Complaints are processed through the procedures the Protocol must establish, with information on the agencies and organisations serving victims in the shelter’s area and immediate referral. The Protocol is created by the Secretary of the Department of Public Safety, with the Bureau for Emergency Management and Disaster Administration. If your situation is a protection order, a police complaint, or the Rape Victims Assistance Center’s services, those have their own guides here.

• Not asking for the Protocol: the law says every shelter shall keep it available and post a visible notice about it.
• Believing the law only looks at violence among the sheltered: it expressly covers acts by disaster responders and by the personnel who administer, work and provide support.
• Thinking volunteers are excluded: the law applies to all personnel providing services in the shelters, including volunteers.
• Reading the separation from the aggressor as an absolute guarantee: the law writes it “to the extent possible.”
• Reporting in public for lack of an alternative: the law requires private spaces and processes to report confidentially.
• Not demanding accessibility: the Protocol must be in alternative formats for blind persons, and oral orientations must have a sign language interpreter.
• Staying silent about an unsafe area: the law requires inspecting potential shelters and closing areas that are unsafe or conducive to committing acts of violence.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Seguridad Pública de Puerto Rico (DSP)

  DSP

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov