New Chicago hospital program provides domestic violence survivors with 24/7 support, resources
Updated on: April 4, 2025 / 4:00 PM CDT
The city of Chicago is partnering with the WINGS nonprofit to launch new program providing help to domestic violence survivors who end up in the hospital.
The program was announced Thursday morning at a news conference hosted by former Chicago mayor and ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, 19th Ward Alderman Matt O’Shea, and WINGS president and CEO Rebecca Darr.
The funding for the program comes from a surcharge on vacation rentals initiated by Emanuel when he was mayor.
Emanuel used a $1.8 million fine from a gentleman’s club to help build the WINGS Metro domestic violence shelter on the southwest side to provide survivors of domestic violence with safety, healing and new beginnings.
“At one level, you obviously are happy you did something innovative that hadn’t been tried before, it’d been, like I said a decade that Chicago had not added a single new bed even though the rise in domestic violence was on a hockey stick-like increase and so we did something different. So that’s to celebrate,” he said. “On the other hand, it also brought awareness to a problem that Chicago has, a chronic problem — not just Chicago, all over the country.”
In 2018, Emanuel supported a city council ordinance for a 2% surcharge on vacation and home rentals. Now it is being used to create a program for hospitalized survivors of domestic violence in Chicago. A spokesperson from the Department of Family and Support Services (DFSS) told us $1.2 million from the home share surcharge is allocated specifically for the new hospital pilot program in 2025.
“The true benefit for the hospital to have us there is that they have direct access to the emergency safe houses,” said Darr.
Darr said WINGS has already established programs like this in the suburbs. The Chicago program will be introduced to hospitals in neighborhoods where data shows the highest levels of domestic homicides and shootings: South Shore, Austin, Auburn Gresham, North Lawndale, Roseland, Chatham, Belmont Cragin, West Pullman, Englewood, Chicago Lawn, Greater Grand Crossing, Woodlawn, West Garfield Park, Washington Park, Grand Boulevard and New City.
Domestic violence survivors will have 24/7 bedside consultations provided for them.
“We’re asking if there are guns in the home, which is a very lethal situation,” Darr said. “We’re asking them where they want to go next. If they want to go back home. Sometimes going back home is a safer option for them to then come back for counseling and continue safety planning, and planning when the right time is to leave.”
Darr said phase one of the new program focuses on introducing WINGS services to hospital staff members, so they’re trained to identify and respond to the needs of domestic violence survivors. The goal, she said, is to have the program in every hospital in the Chicago area.
According to WINGS, one in three women and one in seven men will experience domestic violence in their lifetime.