A woman at a Los Angeles intersection held a sign saying she was trying to stay out of an abusive relationship. In an Instagram Stories clip posted Sunday, singer Lana Del Rey appears to hand her cash and offers a brief warning to be careful. The Daily Mail reported that the bill was $100 and that the encounter took place at a stoplight on Highland Avenue.
The clip captures a short exchange, but does not establish the woman’s identity, what support she had, or what happened after Del Rey drove away. It is one moment, not a measure of how often people seek help this way.
The housing connection
The encounter points to a wider challenge: leaving an abusive relationship can be tied to finding a safe place to live. LA Public Press reported that 44% of unhoused women surveyed in Los Angeles in 2023 identified domestic violence as the primary cause of their homelessness. The outlet also reported a statewide estimate that one in five women who become homeless had fled violence and escalating abuse by an intimate partner. These are reported survey findings, not evidence about the woman in Del Rey’s video.
The Urban Institute says nearly 600 women completed surveys for its Los Angeles County Women’s Needs Assessment in fall 2022; the report was published in July 2023. That survey context matters when interpreting local figures: findings from surveyed participants should not be read as a count of every survivor or unhoused woman in the county.
Access to shelter is another reported constraint. LA Public Press attributed to Los Angeles City Councilmember Katy Yarovslavsky the estimate that 10% of survivors calling for shelter can get a bed. In response to the housing challenge, the city describes its Survivors First pilot as combining flexible funding, mobile advocacy and landlord engagement for survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking. The Community Investment for Families Department says those elements are intended to address barriers to permanent housing.
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority says its Domestic Violence System Alignment initiative coordinates with interim- and permanent-housing departments, and that a separate Non-HMIS portal allows victim-service providers to refer survivors to permanent supportive housing while complying with VAWA privacy requirements. LAHSA describes these as service pathways; their existence does not establish that a particular caller will obtain housing.
For people seeking support, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health’s Domestic Violence Council lists a confidential, 24-hour county hotline at (800) 978-3600.
