Domestic Violence Shelters Are Lacking : The issue is finally a priority, but more havens are needed

I f children aren’t safe in their homes, if college women aren’t safe in their dorms, if mothers can’t raise their children in safety, then the American dream will never be real for them, no matter what we do in economic policy.

--President Bill Clinton, March 21.

It’s safe to say that the problem of domestic violence has finally moved from the back burner all the way to the podium, when the chief executive speaks out on the matter. The President’s comments were made on Tuesday as he selected former Iowa Atty. Gen. Bonnie Campbell as the first director of the U. S. Justice Department’s Violence Against Women office.

The problem of overall violence against women, and not just domestic abuse, appears to have never been greater. According to the Justice Department, for example, the number of rapes reported in this country has risen nearly three times faster than the total crime rate over the past decade. At the same time, some 3 million women nationwide are annually subjected to domestic abuse. The office of the U. S. surgeon general has said that battering is the nation’s single largest cause of injury to women. And the Justice Department says that nearly one-third of the American women who die in any given year are killed by their husbands or boyfriends.

Those kinds of daunting statistics are getting much more attention these days, but a related horror isn’t. We’re talking about the lack of options for women who have decided to flee their tormentors, but have few choices for temporary, emergency living arrangements.

In the Santa Clarita Valley, for example, the Assn. to Aid Victims of Domestic Violence is the only private nonprofit group working to provide safe housing for abuse victims. In the San Fernando Valley, which has a bigger population than most American cities, there is just one battered women’s shelter able to provide housing.

And that shelter, called Haven Hills, has not even been able to provide very much crucial help. To date, it has a 30-bed capacity and can offer only one month’s stay. That’s hardly enough time for a woman to steady herself and make a complete break from an abusive relationship.

To be sure, the Los Angeles City Council has approved a no-interest loan of $1.2 million that will enable Haven Hills to open Los Angeles County’s first large-scale, long-term housing project for domestic violence victims. This is a positive development.

But any happiness over this supposedly “large-scale” project has to be brought back down to earth by the harsh realities. A new 26-unit residence where slightly more than two dozen families of women and children can reside for up to 18 months really doesn’t amount to very much.

Don’t forget that this was a county in which 40% of the 911 emergency calls involved domestic violence. A couple of years ago, that amounted to 42,700 calls in which at least a report was filed.

The LAPD now is much more sensitive to these crimes and is responding accordingly. Awareness is at an all-time high, and that has led to a large increase in the Valley in reported cases of felony domestic assaults.

It all means that we’re about to have a much better sense of just how many women and children might need the kind of refuge offered by Haven Hills, and we’re probably going to be shocked by the extent of it.

Twenty-six units for 18 months isn’t going to do it, nor would the city’s potential share of an initial $26-million pool of federal money the President released Tuesday. More federal money may be on the way later, but Los Angeles officials are going to have to take a long, hard look at the waiting list that will undoubtedly form on the very day that the new Haven Hills shelter opens.