Number of domestic violence victims outnumbers available shelter beds
Sherri Songer returned to Roanoke's domestic violence shelter to work after she arrived to it years ago for safety. Rebecca Barnett | The Roanoke Times
The Roanoke Times | Nov. 10, 2014 | PDF and PDF
By Amy Friedenberger
Sherri Songer approached the door with nothing but her three young children.
“I had that fear of walking through the door the first time, unsure of whether I could do it on my own,” she said.
After 15 years of beatings and verbal abuse from a man whom she lived with, making up lies to the doctor who examined her injuries so she wouldn’t get beaten even worse, she finally convinced herself that she was worth more. She didn’t want to die.
She arrived at Salvation Army’s Turning Point, Roanoke’s only accredited domestic violence shelter, in 1996, and after a few months there and in transitional housing, she said, Turning Point gave her life back to her. The 48-year-old from Christiansburg now works as a case manager at the shelter, helping women who are experiencing what she used to go through.
“I’ve walked in the shoes of each women who walks in here,” she said.
Roanoke police received about 3,800 calls related to domestic violence and disturbances last year. The city usually averages nine homicides per year, with three to four being domestic-related, although this year the city has only reported one homicide.
With 60 beds, Turning Point is one of the state’s largest shelters, and it’s often busy. During the summer months, the shelter was almost at capacity, which is a rare occasion, said Jamie Starkey, director of Turning Point.
Turning Point has been fortunate enough to not have to turn away victims seeking shelter because it has never run into the problem of having a full house, Starkey said.
But some do.
According to the state Attorney General Office’s annual report on domestic violence, a total of 3,486 families who requested shelter services in 2012 were turned away, more than double the 1,437 families turned away in 2008.
According to that same report, shelter programs provided emergency shelter to 3,788 adults and 2,804 children in 2012, an increase from 2,940 adults and 2,323 children in 2008.
The figures also do not include the number of domestic violence victims who seek help from non-domestic violence shelters.
Domestic and sexual violence service providers in the Roanoke and New River Valleys say that the number of people they serve has steadily increased over the years as women become more aware of the alternatives to their dangerous situations. Organizations will provide crisis intervention, safety planning or other services to any victim who contacts them.
But for those operating shelters, they say an unfortunate consequence of the increasing number of victims looking to escape a violent situation by turning to a shelter is that not all of them can have a spot.
Unsheltered victims
Women’s Resource Center of the New River Valley, a women’s shelter and domestic violence agency, is based in Radford but also serves Floyd, Giles, Montgomery and Pulaski counties, which do not have their own shelters.
In the last fiscal year, which ended in June, the center sheltered 131 families, including 143 children. It provided a total of 7,130 nights of emergency shelter, said Pat Brown, the center’s executive director.
“We can only assume that if those people had not been in a shelter, they would have been homeless, on a street or with an abuser,” she said.
It also had 95 calls from people who could not be sheltered because all of the beds were full. From 2009 to 2012, the center was unable to provide shelter to 155 individuals. Brown said that if someone called multiple times, each call is counted in those figures.
When those 95 calls came through, someone at the shelter talked with the callers and assessed whether they were in imminent danger. If they were, the shelter tried to either make space or pay for them to stay in a hotel.
If they’re not in imminent danger, Brown said the shelter will try to arrange for them to go to a shelter in another county.
“Most people say no,” she said. “Most people don’t want to do that. It’s so much uprooting and out of their home area. Maybe their job is here, their kids’ school is here.”
The Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance, through which all shelters register, lists 40 emergency shelters in the state. That means more than a third of Virginia’s counties and cities do not have shelters.
The Women’s Resource Center of the New River Valley stations employees in each of the counties it serves to help with counseling and court preparation.
Some shelters, such as Family Resource Center Inc. in Wythe County, use a scattered site model with shelters in a few of the counties it serves. This works to address the advantages and disadvantages of having a shelter where the victim lives, said Regina Pack Eller, executive director of Family Resource Center. If a victim has family or supporters in the area or has a child who needs to finish the school year, staying close to home can be beneficial. The scattered model can also help victims who need to get out of the area for their own safety.
Starkey said that if a woman needs to be relocated because, for example, the abuser is looking for her, a shelter can reach out to other domestic violence shelters to see if there is space. But because shelters are often so busy these days, they may place relocated victims in a homeless shelter rather than a domestic violence shelter. The rationale is that if she’s in imminent danger and moves to the other side of the state, she’s no longer in imminent danger, so she can stay in a homeless shelter and still meet with domestic violence shelter employees to receive services.
But most shelters will only accept someone out of their service area if the shelter that the victim tried to stay at gives them a referral.
“That’s sort of the thought process,” Starkey said. “The reason for that is lack of resources. It makes sense, but it’s not perfect because it’s not what we’d want to have.”
Going forward
Could the state use more domestic violence shelters? Perhaps. But those running shelters or working for domestic violence service providers say more shelters will not solve the problem of domestic violence.
“I think more arrests should happen,” Brown said.
Virginia has a preferred-arrest law, which requires officers to make an arrest if they determine there is probable cause, even if the victim doesn’t want to press charges. Roanoke officers use a checklist with questions ranging from whether the victim has been seriously injured by the suspect to whether the suspect has threatened to kill or injure the victim’s family members or pets.
Brown said she has been in contact with Radford police to work with them when they evaluate how officers do risk assessment.
Radford police Lt. Andy Wilburn said the police department has been re-examining its reporting procedures out of interest in improving its model.
In September, Roanoke police unveiled an innovative initiative designed to focus on domestic violence offenders by telling them that they have two options: change their behavior or go to prison.
As far as what agencies can do to improve, Starkey said Salvation Army, Total Action for Progress and Family Service of Roanoke Valley are conducting a needs assessment to identify gaps in services and barriers to services.
“One of the things that really needs to happen is understanding the role all of the community agencies serve presently,” Starkey said.
One of the challenges shelters face is victims’ barriers to independence. Victims often flee without a birth certificate or Social Security card. Their credit might be damaged from their abuser forcing them to take on debt, making it difficult to get an apartment. And sometimes, if they took care of children, they haven’t worked in years. Starkey said that these barriers can result in repeated visits — Turning Point has sometimes had the same victim return more than once after going back to an abuser or ending up with another abuser.
The victim return rate is something that shelters and Total Action for Progress’ This Valley Works, which focuses on domestic violence, try to address. The organization helps with everything from crisis planning to life skills and helping write a resume.
“We’re based on whatever victims need,” said Annette Lewis, senior vice president of programs and director of This Valley Works.
Agencies also say changes in state and federal funding have affected their ability to provide services.
Federal funding through the Victims of Crime Act has fluctuated over the years. It increased to about $10.7 million last year in Virginia, from $9.5 million in 2012. For 2009 and 2010, funding stood at $10.2 million.
Service providers expressed satisfaction that the General Assembly passed a budget earlier this year that would result in an additional $1 million of federal and state funds for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families programs to expand domestic violence services in 2015. The following year, those programs will get another $1 million in TANF funds and an additional $1.1 million in state funds.
Starting in the last fiscal year, Turning Point began to turn down $90,000 through the Homeless Solutions Grant, a state-funded program. Salvation Army Capt. Bill McKinley said new criteria, including identifying a secular nonprofit to funnel the money through as well as forbidding shelters to test people for drugs — an integral part of the Salvation Army’s Red Shield Lodge homeless shelter program — prevented the organization from accepting the grant.
“We have to stay true to who we are,” McKinley said.
Turning Point got a $50,000 increase from the Department of Social Services, but to make up for the big loss of the Homeless Solutions Grant, Turning Point has turned to aggressive fundraising. Its Dancing With the Valley Stars — based on the popular TV show — raised about $60,000 last year, and $155,000 with this year’s event, which was held on Saturday.
Songer said the resources provided to her at Turning Point were integral in her recovery and toward becoming a survivor. When she first came to the shelter about 18 years ago, she asked a case manager how long she would take to get better.
“Not nearly as long as it took you to get to this point,” Songer recalled the manager saying.
By Amy Friedenberger
Sherri Songer approached the door with nothing but her three young children.
“I had that fear of walking through the door the first time, unsure of whether I could do it on my own,” she said.
After 15 years of beatings and verbal abuse from a man whom she lived with, making up lies to the doctor who examined her injuries so she wouldn’t get beaten even worse, she finally convinced herself that she was worth more. She didn’t want to die.
She arrived at Salvation Army’s Turning Point, Roanoke’s only accredited domestic violence shelter, in 1996, and after a few months there and in transitional housing, she said, Turning Point gave her life back to her. The 48-year-old from Christiansburg now works as a case manager at the shelter, helping women who are experiencing what she used to go through.
“I’ve walked in the shoes of each women who walks in here,” she said.
Roanoke police received about 3,800 calls related to domestic violence and disturbances last year. The city usually averages nine homicides per year, with three to four being domestic-related, although this year the city has only reported one homicide.
With 60 beds, Turning Point is one of the state’s largest shelters, and it’s often busy. During the summer months, the shelter was almost at capacity, which is a rare occasion, said Jamie Starkey, director of Turning Point.
Turning Point has been fortunate enough to not have to turn away victims seeking shelter because it has never run into the problem of having a full house, Starkey said.
But some do.
According to the state Attorney General Office’s annual report on domestic violence, a total of 3,486 families who requested shelter services in 2012 were turned away, more than double the 1,437 families turned away in 2008.
According to that same report, shelter programs provided emergency shelter to 3,788 adults and 2,804 children in 2012, an increase from 2,940 adults and 2,323 children in 2008.
The figures also do not include the number of domestic violence victims who seek help from non-domestic violence shelters.
Domestic and sexual violence service providers in the Roanoke and New River Valleys say that the number of people they serve has steadily increased over the years as women become more aware of the alternatives to their dangerous situations. Organizations will provide crisis intervention, safety planning or other services to any victim who contacts them.
But for those operating shelters, they say an unfortunate consequence of the increasing number of victims looking to escape a violent situation by turning to a shelter is that not all of them can have a spot.
Unsheltered victims
Women’s Resource Center of the New River Valley, a women’s shelter and domestic violence agency, is based in Radford but also serves Floyd, Giles, Montgomery and Pulaski counties, which do not have their own shelters.
In the last fiscal year, which ended in June, the center sheltered 131 families, including 143 children. It provided a total of 7,130 nights of emergency shelter, said Pat Brown, the center’s executive director.
“We can only assume that if those people had not been in a shelter, they would have been homeless, on a street or with an abuser,” she said.
It also had 95 calls from people who could not be sheltered because all of the beds were full. From 2009 to 2012, the center was unable to provide shelter to 155 individuals. Brown said that if someone called multiple times, each call is counted in those figures.
When those 95 calls came through, someone at the shelter talked with the callers and assessed whether they were in imminent danger. If they were, the shelter tried to either make space or pay for them to stay in a hotel.
If they’re not in imminent danger, Brown said the shelter will try to arrange for them to go to a shelter in another county.
“Most people say no,” she said. “Most people don’t want to do that. It’s so much uprooting and out of their home area. Maybe their job is here, their kids’ school is here.”
The Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance, through which all shelters register, lists 40 emergency shelters in the state. That means more than a third of Virginia’s counties and cities do not have shelters.
The Women’s Resource Center of the New River Valley stations employees in each of the counties it serves to help with counseling and court preparation.
Some shelters, such as Family Resource Center Inc. in Wythe County, use a scattered site model with shelters in a few of the counties it serves. This works to address the advantages and disadvantages of having a shelter where the victim lives, said Regina Pack Eller, executive director of Family Resource Center. If a victim has family or supporters in the area or has a child who needs to finish the school year, staying close to home can be beneficial. The scattered model can also help victims who need to get out of the area for their own safety.
Starkey said that if a woman needs to be relocated because, for example, the abuser is looking for her, a shelter can reach out to other domestic violence shelters to see if there is space. But because shelters are often so busy these days, they may place relocated victims in a homeless shelter rather than a domestic violence shelter. The rationale is that if she’s in imminent danger and moves to the other side of the state, she’s no longer in imminent danger, so she can stay in a homeless shelter and still meet with domestic violence shelter employees to receive services.
But most shelters will only accept someone out of their service area if the shelter that the victim tried to stay at gives them a referral.
“That’s sort of the thought process,” Starkey said. “The reason for that is lack of resources. It makes sense, but it’s not perfect because it’s not what we’d want to have.”
Going forward
Could the state use more domestic violence shelters? Perhaps. But those running shelters or working for domestic violence service providers say more shelters will not solve the problem of domestic violence.
“I think more arrests should happen,” Brown said.
Virginia has a preferred-arrest law, which requires officers to make an arrest if they determine there is probable cause, even if the victim doesn’t want to press charges. Roanoke officers use a checklist with questions ranging from whether the victim has been seriously injured by the suspect to whether the suspect has threatened to kill or injure the victim’s family members or pets.
Brown said she has been in contact with Radford police to work with them when they evaluate how officers do risk assessment.
Radford police Lt. Andy Wilburn said the police department has been re-examining its reporting procedures out of interest in improving its model.
In September, Roanoke police unveiled an innovative initiative designed to focus on domestic violence offenders by telling them that they have two options: change their behavior or go to prison.
As far as what agencies can do to improve, Starkey said Salvation Army, Total Action for Progress and Family Service of Roanoke Valley are conducting a needs assessment to identify gaps in services and barriers to services.
“One of the things that really needs to happen is understanding the role all of the community agencies serve presently,” Starkey said.
One of the challenges shelters face is victims’ barriers to independence. Victims often flee without a birth certificate or Social Security card. Their credit might be damaged from their abuser forcing them to take on debt, making it difficult to get an apartment. And sometimes, if they took care of children, they haven’t worked in years. Starkey said that these barriers can result in repeated visits — Turning Point has sometimes had the same victim return more than once after going back to an abuser or ending up with another abuser.
The victim return rate is something that shelters and Total Action for Progress’ This Valley Works, which focuses on domestic violence, try to address. The organization helps with everything from crisis planning to life skills and helping write a resume.
“We’re based on whatever victims need,” said Annette Lewis, senior vice president of programs and director of This Valley Works.
Agencies also say changes in state and federal funding have affected their ability to provide services.
Federal funding through the Victims of Crime Act has fluctuated over the years. It increased to about $10.7 million last year in Virginia, from $9.5 million in 2012. For 2009 and 2010, funding stood at $10.2 million.
Service providers expressed satisfaction that the General Assembly passed a budget earlier this year that would result in an additional $1 million of federal and state funds for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families programs to expand domestic violence services in 2015. The following year, those programs will get another $1 million in TANF funds and an additional $1.1 million in state funds.
Starting in the last fiscal year, Turning Point began to turn down $90,000 through the Homeless Solutions Grant, a state-funded program. Salvation Army Capt. Bill McKinley said new criteria, including identifying a secular nonprofit to funnel the money through as well as forbidding shelters to test people for drugs — an integral part of the Salvation Army’s Red Shield Lodge homeless shelter program — prevented the organization from accepting the grant.
“We have to stay true to who we are,” McKinley said.
Turning Point got a $50,000 increase from the Department of Social Services, but to make up for the big loss of the Homeless Solutions Grant, Turning Point has turned to aggressive fundraising. Its Dancing With the Valley Stars — based on the popular TV show — raised about $60,000 last year, and $155,000 with this year’s event, which was held on Saturday.
Songer said the resources provided to her at Turning Point were integral in her recovery and toward becoming a survivor. When she first came to the shelter about 18 years ago, she asked a case manager how long she would take to get better.
“Not nearly as long as it took you to get to this point,” Songer recalled the manager saying.
