While people experiencing domestic violence may take weeks, months, or years to decide they are emotionally or financially ready to leave their abusive partners, physically leaving often must happen in seconds. “You have a very small window, depending on whatever the situation is,” explains Maria Barahona, the chief program officer for the Haven Hills shelter in Los Angeles. “If the abuser’s at work, maybe you only have two hours. Maybe they go to the bathroom, and you have minutes.”
But the process to get someone away from their abuser and into a safe bed isn’t always quick.
When people call a domestic violence hotline or 211 for help, they are generally connected to local advocates who assess their needs. The advocate might need to contact multiple shelters to find one that both has a vacancy and is outside the 20-mile “danger zone” around the abuser’s location. And then, of course, there’s getting to the shelter. The San Fernando Valley is geographically very spread out, so a car is generally the best option — but many victims don’t have access to one. The L.A. County Department of Public Health first approached the rideshare company Lyft in 2024; soon, the company was providing ten survivor service providers with discounted ride codes.
The successful public-private partnership got the department, the city, and the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) wondering: What more could be done to make it both easier for survivors to access services and for providers to coordinate resourcing among themselves?
In 2025, the county tapped the Downtown Women’s Center to lead a pilot to work closely with those same ten survivor service providers and develop a technological solution. Just last month, they released CareConnect, a new software/referral system. Cristina Cortes, the pilot manager of the Downtown Women’s Center, predicts that — between the increased efficiencies of the platform and the Lyft ride codes — the time lag between the phone call to placement in a shelter could soon decrease by as much as 30% to 40%.
CareConnect: The origins
In recent years, the city and county of Los Angeles began to look for ways to help survivors of domestic violence. They wanted to find a way to help them access the support they needed more efficiently and quickly — so they could get off the streets, into shelters and, eventually, to permanent housing. In fact, according to a study by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, 19% of unaccompanied women experiencing homelessness in L.A. are fleeing domestic or intimate partner violence.
The L.A. County Department of Public Health initiated a private-public partnership to fund a pilot program for a technological solution: Ten survivor service providers would design a resource-sharing platform that would allow each organization to share their vacancies in real-time. IBM would develop it. Organizations could add other resources there, too, like legal representatives or counselors. What’s more, it would also give survivors the ability to consent to sharing their information across providers — meaning they never have to repeat their story to get help.
Rideshare fills the gap
While the tech was being developed, the city and county relied on another key private partner, Lyft, to help solve the transportation problem. Beginning in 2024, the rideshare company provided the organizations taking part in the pilot program with ride codes for them to disseminate to those in need. The ride codes have already been a lifesaver for hundreds of survivors.
While L.A. County has public transportation, it’s hard to navigate. “It’s difficult for me to look up the routes,” shares Cortes, “and I’m not in crisis. I don’t have kids with me or a bunch of stuff.” When survivors need to leave their situations quickly, and discreetly, walking to a bus stop and waiting can not only be time-consuming but dangerous.
Cortes remembers working with one woman whose abuser would fill her car with only enough gas for her to get her kids to school and back, no more. Jong-Ling Wu, a program manager for the Center for the Pacific Asian Family (CPAF), recalls abusers who prevented their partners from getting their license or accessing the car keys — or who even monitored the odometer for mileage.
The ride codes, explains Cortes, not only help survivors, but service providers, too: “Instead of coordinating transportation among their team or personally transporting participants, advocates can focus on assisting more survivors.”
CareConnect and Lyft: What’s next
Last month, CareConnect went live. Now, when someone calls a hotline for help, the advocate on the line will be able to record her information and obtain her consent to share it with other providers. The advocate can go into CareConnect to see shelter vacancies in real time, select one, and send her information over directly. The organization can then use a Lyft ride code to get the survivor to their doors. What once could have taken hours (or even longer, if the survivor had to find a private moment to call a hotline back) can now take minutes.
“That’s why CareConnect is revolutionary,” says Cortes. “Nothing like this exists anywhere else in the country.”
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass adds: “By connecting survivors to safe shelter quickly and with dignity, we’re not just getting people off the streets — we’re getting them to safe places and helping them rebuild their lives.”
Pending funding approvals, the county is optimistic that they will be able to acquire more funding to onboard up to 20 more agencies in the near future. In that case, the platform’s impact could be even broader — helping more survivors to not just safely and quickly leave their situations, but also to help them access the resources they need to go beyond just “surviving.” As Wu explains, “As the network expands, people may request resources in regions we're less familiar with, or need a specific service we don't provide. We can use the CareConnect portal to search for these resources and ask providers — lawyers, interpreters, counselors, etc. — directly: Do you have capacity for a new client?”
The ride codes will play an active role in connecting survivors to those services. For example, according to Barahona, her clients at Haven Hills don’t just use Lyft ride codes when they’re fleeing their partners, but for all manner of needs while they’re rebuilding their lives. One case manager at Haven Hills remembers a client with two small children and a physical disability who used the ride codes to get to court, view apartments, take her children to school, attend job interviews, and more.
The ride codes were just one piece of the broad network of support that allowed her and her children to make a “new beginning.”