For years, Natasha Parker was in a relationship with a man who would choke her, and would eventually stalk her and her daughter, and threaten her outside her apartment at a public housing complex in New York City, she said.

Ms. Parker, 46, decided to move out secretly when the abuse escalated in January 2023. She told the New York City Housing Authority that she was experiencing domestic violence and needed an emergency transfer. She was approved days later.

Still, Ms. Parker and her daughter ended up waiting for over a year and a half for an apartment to become available so they could move. In May 2023, while waiting to move, he kicked her door in, she said.

The wait made her feel “like a victim all over again,” Ms. Parker said in August, when she was still going through the transfer process.

Federal law under the Violence Against Women Act, whose passage 30 years ago was commemorated by the Justice Department this month, requires housing providers to assist in relocating their tenants in subsidized units when they are experiencing domestic violence, but many victims wait for months. A July report from the Government Accountability Office points to a lack of training, little policy direction and red tape as major barriers.

While waiting, low-income domestic violence survivors are often stuck between two choices: staying where their abusers can find them or moving to a homeless shelter, where the length of stay allowed is usually limited.