LGBT and HIV-affected people are facing barriers to basic help and services when they report incidents of violence by an intimate partner, according to a new report by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP).

An analysis of almost 2,000 incidents reported to NCAVP member organizations in 2015 found that violence survivors were frequently denied services and treated as criminals when reporting violence. The report comes in the middle of what looks to be the most violent year for transgender women, with 22 reported homicides so far in 2016 – the same number for all of last year, according to NCAVP.

Half of those who sought access to an emergency shelter were denied, the report found, and a quarter of people found police to be “hostile” or “indifferent” when reporting an incident. One-third of people also said they faced arrest after reporting.

Intimate partner violence includes physical and verbal abuse, as well as threats and intimidation, by current and past lovers, and occasionally roommates.

The organization found that transgender women faced intimate partner violence involving physical and financial abuse at rates three times higher other identities within the LGBT community. And undocumented LGBT people saw their reports of violence double from 4% to 9% of the reports made last year.

Some people identified particular safety concerns distinct to the LGBT community.

“I sought help from the local domestic violence shelter,” says Sylvia, a trans woman whose name has been changed for anonymity, in the report; she had to use a men’s shelter to obtain help, “but they could not guarantee my attacker would not enter the shelter”.

“They had no protocol for LGBT anything,” she said.

The organization found that 71% of people reporting intimate partner violence were denied entry into shelters because of their identified gender.

Beverly Tillery, the executive director of New York Anti-Violence Project, cites limited awareness as a major obstacle to reform.

“The lack of ... visibility in the media of LGBTQ victims of IPV contributes to this issue being ignore as a national problem,” says Beverly Tillery, the executive director of New York Anti-Violence Project. “[And] this needs to change.”

In 2013, when the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was reauthorized, federal law for the first time protected against discrimination based on gender and identity.

But advocates believe that law change hasn’t resulted yet in less discrimination, and that other legal frameworks, particularly at the state level, must follow suit to better protect LGBT individuals from violence.