COUNTYWIDE : 3 Women’s Shelters Awarded Grants

Three Orange County shelters for battered women have been awarded grants to help women find alternative housing after leaving a shelter.

The grants from the Pacific Mutual Foundation, totaling $60,000, were awarded to Human Options, Women’s Transitional Living Center and Interval House. The funds will go toward paying the first and last month’s rent and other required deposits on permanent housing.

“Our grants will help 50 to 60 women start a new life,” said Patricia Kosky, vice president of the foundation. “Because the shelters do such excellent follow-up with their graduates, there is a high degree of probability that these women will be able to sustain their new skills and insights.”

The women will undergo individual and family counseling, as well as receive help in budgeting, setting goals and vocational training.

“The primary reason women return to a batterer is the lack of financial resources to fund decent housing,” said Carol Anne Williams, executive director of Interval House in central Orange County. “Research shows us that after women receive support and counseling at a shelter, they rarely have the funds to pay first and last month’s rent for an apartment.”

Human Options received a $12,600 grant, Interval House received $23,700 and the Women’s Transitional Living Center was awarded $23,700.

Human Options in South County is currently trying to raise money for a down payment on an apartment complex in Costa Mesa as “second-stage housing.” Clients who go through the shelter’s program for the usual 45-day stay will then be offered a low-cost apartment for a year while they receive job training and continued counseling.

A typical shelter resident, Williams said, is between 18 and 40, has two or more children and usually arrives at the shelter with only the clothes she is wearing. Most often, she has left because she is finally convinced that her spouse or boyfriend is going to kill her or he has begun to beat the children.

More than half of the children in the shelter have been physically or sexually abused, she said.

The Pacific Mutual Foundation is the charitable arm of the Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Co., which is based in Newport Beach. Last year, it contributed more than $650,000 to nonprofit organizations.