ATASK

Shelters can't help all fleeing abuse

Cutbacks, shift in policy narrow victims' options

~ The Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence, which provides beds for men, women, and children, lost state funding for one of its shelters, a four-bed safe home, during the rebidding. The agency found enough private funding to keep it open, but the solution may be temporary, said Cristina Lee, assistant director of advocacy services at the task force. ~

Anthia Elliott took a call at Safe Passage. The Northampton facility offers services for victims of domestic violence.

Anthia Elliott took a call at Safe Passage. The Northampton facility offers services for victims of domestic violence. (christine peterson/for the boston globe)

By Maria Cramer, Globe Staff | January 14, 2008

Domestic violence shelters across the state are becoming overwhelmed and are increasingly turning victims away, driving some of those seeking help back to abusive partners or to the streets, according to advocates and shelter program directors.

The number of victims turned away from shelters more than quadrupled, from 1,374 in fiscal 2003 to 5,520 in fiscal 2005, according to Jane Doe Inc., a statewide coalition against sexual assault and domestic violence that also tracks trends.

On many days, only one bed will be available in the state for 100 people who call domestic violence hotlines seeking shelter. Sometimes, none can be found.

"It is alarming," said Deborah Collins-Gousby, interim co-executive director at Casa Myrna Vazquez in Boston, which has three residential programs and runs Safe Link, the statewide domestic violence hotline. "If you're feeling the need to flee and there is no space, what do you do?"

The problem, advocates said, has worsened in recent years for several reasons. Federal funding for shelters has ebbed; the state has had an influx of undocumented immigrants who are too afraid of police to report their abusers but will seek shelters; there is less affordable housing statewide, meaning victims often stay in shelters longer; and several shelters were forced to close after losing funding from the Department of Social Services, which in 2006 shifted its resources to community-based services, such as counseling and legal services for abuse victims, so they can remain at home.

Agencies and advocates go to great lengths trying to ensure that a victim does not have to return to an abuser. When a shelter runs out of beds and cots, victims stay at volunteers' homes temporarily. Victims are also sent to shelters in Connecticut or New Hampshire, or advised to stay with friends or relatives that the abuser does not know. If a victim must return to a home shared with an abuser, advocates work with police to provide protection, offer to help file restraining orders, and provide counseling services.

But even then, a victim might not be safe, said Brenda Lopez, domestic violence prevention coordinator at the Springfield Police Department, where officers have provided food for women and children forced to wait hours at headquarters for shelter space to open up.

Last July, Lopez recalled, a young pregnant woman who went to the hospital after her partner hit her returned home after her abuser told police he would leave the house. Two days later, he came back and beat her so severely she almost miscarried, Lopez said.

"You're punished when you go back," she said. "You're punished because you tried to leave. It also verifies for the person what their abuser has told them: 'Nobody is going to want you. Nobody is going to help you. You can't live without me.' "

Maria, a domestic abuse victim who left her husband 12 years ago, said that when she and her young daughter fled, they immediately found refuge at a shelter in Western Massachusetts. Now a victim's advocate, she said it often takes her several days, even weeks to find space for victims.

"It's just pathetic," said Maria, who asked that her last name and the name of the agency she works for be withheld because she does not want her abuser to find her. "It is so sad to see these women being traumatized and abused by their partners and then being traumatized and abused by the system."

Since 2003, federal funding for domestic violence programs in Massachusetts, which helped pay for shelters, has decreased. From fiscal 2003 to fiscal 2006, funding from the US Department of Health and Human Services went from $1.85 million to $1.78 million. During the same three-year period, a grant from the Department of Justice decreased from $2.8 million to $2.54 million, according to Jane Doe Inc.

In 2006, after DSS, under former governor Mitt Romney, renegotiated contracts that shifted funding from shelters, several agencies lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in shelter funding. The change forced Casa Myrna Vasquez to close its seven-bed emergency shelter.

The Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence, which provides beds for men, women, and children, lost state funding for one of its shelters, a four-bed safe home, during the rebidding. The agency found enough private funding to keep it open, but the solution may be temporary, said Cristina Lee, assistant director of advocacy services at the task force.

"We can't afford to keep it going," she said.

Officials at DSS, which funds about 90 percent of shelter beds across the state, said funding for shelters increased from $6.57 million in fiscal 2007 to $8.27 million in fiscal 2008. But officials said they had no statistics indicating how much the shelters received before fiscal 2007 because, under Romney, DSS did not break down funding for shelters for domestic violence victims.

Marilyn Anderson Chase, assistant secretary for children, youth, and families, said the agency is focusing its resources on preventing domestic violence, such as counseling children of abusers who are more likely to follow in a batterer's footsteps.

"I think everybody recognizes that having a robust shelter system is imperative," Anderson Chase said. "But I hope they would agree that our first priority is: How do we reduce incidence of domestic violence?"

It is a goal many advocates say they commend.

"More shelter beds is really not the solution," said Candace Waldron, executive director of Hawc, Help for Abused Women and their Children, in Salem. "The solution would be for community response teams that are comprehensive enough to keep victims and their children at home, while the perpetrator is held accountable for their behavior."

But until that happens, people need a place to go, she said.

"If someone is calling for shelter, you know they're at the end of the rope," Waldron said. "To say to them, 'Sorry, we don't have space,' is devastating."

Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com.