FYI: Mayor Bloomberg announced this morning several steps to ease the process domestic violence victims confront when looking for safe housing. The New York City Housing Authority says by the end of the fiscal year it will begin expedited processing of housing requests for battered spouses and will assign each client a PIN that will allow them to check the status of their case by phone instead of trekking down to the housing office. NYCHA is also discarding a rule that forced domestic violence victims to move to a different borough (in the name of safety), establishing a new rule that requires them to only change zip codes. In addition, the city plans to boost the number of transitional beds available by 11 percent; it currently has 155 units of transitional shelter for battered spouses. [10/22/03]