Women Need More Havens, Study Finds

Over a period of six months, Mary mustered enough nerve to call four battered women’s shelters seeking refuge from her husband.

Each time, she was told there was no room and she became increasingly discouraged and fearful, she said. And each time, she gave up trying until she was hurt again.

“It’s like if somebody calls the police while someone is breaking the door in and you’re told ‘sorry not now, can you call back later?’ ” she said. “You just want to be safe and you have nowhere else to turn.”

The La Verne resident (she asked that her last name be withheld) was finally accepted to the House of Ruth in the East San Gabriel Valley, one of three shelters for victims of domestic violence in the valley. By then her husband of more than four years had broken her collarbone and threatened to kill her.

More than 90% of the battered women and children who seek shelter in Los Angeles County cannot be accommodated, according to a county grand jury report released this month. The approximately 400 beds in 18 private nonprofit shelters countywide are inadequate, the study stated. Only about 150 families can be accommodated at one time.

“If we had adequate numbers of shelters, half the country would be safehouses,” said Jamie Watson, board member of the Southern California Coalition on Battered Women.

According to the grand jury report, violence has erupted at least once between more than half the couples in the nation, and abuse is common to between 10 and 25 percent of all couples.

In Los Angeles County, nearly 40,000 domestic violence-related calls for assistance were made in 1987, city and county authorities said.

Liaisons With Shelters

No county programs target battered women, the report concluded, although the county Department of Social Services provides domestic violence liaisons who work with shelters to expedite financial aid applications.

The grand jury urged the county to better coordinate and publicize available services.

Counties distribute funds from a $19 surcharge on California marriage licenses to domestic violence shelters, which also depend on various grants and donations.

The report’s release coincides with the expansion of the largest shelter in the San Gabriel Valley. Last Wednesday, Haven House--a 36-bed sanctuary in Pasadena for families of violent alcoholics since 1964--celebrated the acquisition of property to accommodate 20 more people and a larger playground.

Child Doesn’t Talk

In one art-therapy drawing on display at Wednesday’s event, a 12-year-old resident named Dennis had scrawled in crayon: “Dear daddy, please stop drinking. We want to come home. I do love you sometimes.” Sean, 4, had drawn his father with stout arms and clenched fists. He depicted his mother and himself without hands. The boy had not talked for more than a year for fear of provoking one of his father’s sudden rages.

Every month Haven House receives about 100 calls from battered women, many with children, seeking shelter, said former Director Cindy Friedman. The shelter can accommodate only 100 families a year.

The danger in having to turn women away is that the severity of violence tends to escalate, said Margaret Kukreja, outreach coordinator for the House of Ruth.

“It’s a predictable cycle that gets more and more intense,” she said. About a third of the 400 hot line calls the 18-bed home receives are requests for shelter.

“Most (women) have tried various things to resolve their situation, from counseling to the police” before resorting to shelters, said Sue Aebisher, director of the YWCA’s WINGS home. WINGS, an acronym for Women in Need Growing Strong, will be doubling its capacity to 32 beds by September.

By the time women are admitted to WINGS, nearly half have black eyes and 75% have been kicked or punched, sometimes severely enough to warrant medical attention, Aebisher said. Some women who were denied a place for lack of a bed have later shown up in worse condition, she added.

“When you’re ready to go, you’ve got to go,” said Anne (not her real name), who now staffs the WINGS hot line as a volunteer. “There was the fear that if I didn’t get away it would be all over for me. I didn’t want to wait around and get hit again.”

Joanne, a resident at Haven House, had called shelters around the county for a week without success. The failed attempts didn’t make her life any easier. Her alcoholic husband, rarely left her alone after he discovered she had tried to leave.

“He knew it was always in the back of my mind,” she said. “I wasn’t allowed to be out anywhere without him.” When she finally managed to escape with her two children, she found a place at Haven House.

Once families arrive at the shelter, they are given counseling and can stay 45 days while searching for jobs or permanent housing. As with all such shelters, the location of Haven House is kept secret from outsiders so abusers cannot track their partners down.

Mary, who now volunteers at the House of Ruth, said the frustration of not getting in when she first called still makes her angry. During her last weeks with her husband, she said, he would drag her out of bed while she was asleep and beat her.

“When you get up enough strength to call and get turned down, it’s a very scary feeling,” she said. “I’d probably be dead today if I didn’t leave him when I did.”

HOT LINE NUMBERSHaven House(213) 681-2626

WINGS (818) 967-0658

House of Ruth (714) 988-5559