More Shelter for Battered Women : City and L.A. County move to increase facilities amid growing awareness

All the discussion about domestic violence spurred by the Simpson murder case is starting to produce some positive effects. It has prodded the budget-strapped Los Angeles City Council and the County Board of Supervisors to provide additional shelters for women who flee battering husbands or boyfriends.

These havens are urgently needed. There are only three in the city and only 18 countywide. At best, these scarce refuges can protect a couple of hundred women and their children. Thousands must be turned away because of chronic lack of space.

Council members Mark Ridley-Thomas and Rita Walters deserve credit for taking the lead in securing money for additional beds in shelters within city boundaries. The action will allow nonprofit developers and community groups to open, expand or operate shelters.

The council also has voted to establish a Domestic Violence Task Force, add domestic violence experts to the new Community Police Advisory Boards, direct the housing authority to establish preference for abuse victims for housing assistance and approve the listing of spousal abuse hot lines on the city’s cable television channel. All of this is worthwhile.

County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke proposed, and the board approved, a similar panel to review arrest procedures, prosecution, victim support and protection, public education and early intervention among teen-agers.

The supervisors also will spend $1.1 million on the 18 shelters within the county. Those funds will come from marriage license revenues designated for the shelters.

Every available bed is needed. In Los Angeles County, local authorities received nearly 68,000 domestic violence calls and made more than 16,600 arrests last year, and the number of calls has risen since the arrest of O. J. Simpson.

How many women in our region have no place to hide because all shelters are full? No one can say for sure, but the number now should be reduced, however modestly, thanks to this movement in the right direction.