County Steps In With Funds to Save Women’s Shelter

A South Bay shelter for battered women has received $45,000 in grants from Los Angeles County to help it make up for a $60,000 budget cut last month that threatened the home with closure.

The 1736 Family Crisis Center shelter will receive $20,000 in discretionary funds from Supervisor Deane Dana, as well as another $25,000 that was approved this week by the County Board of Supervisors under the federal government’s Community Development Block Grant program.

The 1736 shelter and a Glendale shelter lost $60,000 each in July because of a shortfall in marriage license fees collected by the county. Also because of the shortfall, 16 other shelters had their funding reduced from $80,000 a year to $71,000 annually.

The 16 shelters were given priority over the South Bay and Glendale shelters because they are emergency homes, providing housing for women in the first 45 days after they leave their mates. The South Bay and Glendale shelters provide longer stays, of up to six months, and programs to help women find jobs, locate housing and budget their limited funds.

Carol Adelkoff, director of the 1736 Family Crisis Center, said the substitute grants from the county will help the shelter remain open. But she said a fund-raising drive is continuing to make up for the remaining $15,000 lost in the budget cut.

The Crisis Center also operates an emergency battered women’s shelter in the South Bay, which was one of those losing $9,000 in the budget cut. The Crisis Center also hopes to recoup that money through donations, Adelkoff said.

County officials said the funding reduction for the 18 battered women’s shelters was caused by a drop in the number of marriages. Under state law, $19 out of the $35 fee for a marriage license goes into a fund for domestic violence programs.